The Hershey Prayer

Christmas candies, heaped high in an elegant bowl under crackling cellophane, gleamed in their silver and copper wrappers. This gift from our friends looked rich… in every way.

The taste-testing began. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, butternut… but what were those two-toned delicacies? Dave took a bite.

“Peanut butter and chocolate,” he reported. “Like a Reece Cup.”

Reece Cup! Nature’s most nearly perfect food! Epicurean bliss in a brown and orange wrapper! The wedding of two flavors that were always meant to be together!

But not to be duplicated, my own taste-testing verified. Our Christmas candies were fancy-schmancy, but there was no imitating the real thing.

The first two sermons we’ve heard this New Year, taken together, also offer a winning combination. An unbeatable, inimitable marriage of ingredients and flavors: prayer and revolution.

But step aside, Hershey. This specialty can only be manufactured by God – and us. That’s the only combination that can turn out this treat. Prayer is the chocolaty exterior; hidden within are the changes we want to see happen, the flavor we crave in our lives, the internal revolution only God can concoct.

So I challenge you, at the top of the year, to combine the two flavors in a tangible way. Write a prayer to be prayed daily in 2011.

First, sit down with the Lord and talk together about His desires, your desires, His heart, your fears, etc. Then write a prayer – not too long – that expresses the gratitude you often unthinkingly withhold and the praise you forget to express. And deep within the heart of that prayer, ask for help in your areas of weakness, guidance in your lifestyle and decisions… and the specific change God wants to bring about in your mind and heart.

Pray that prayer every day.

I did this at the beginning of 2010, and I’m still not ready to lay that prayer aside. Maybe I’ll just update it. For it’s a good feeling to pray for the things God wants. It’s invigorating to pray for life-change, and to continually re-affirm our cooperation with the Revolutionary who can bring that about. It’s powerful spiritual exercise to pray persistently in the same direction for a whole year. And it’s faith-building to see change happen from the inside out.

Prayer and revolution. A winning combination, a marriage made in heaven, a spiritual delight. Enjoy… all year long!