And now for something completely different 🙂 — kinda. It’s been a long time since I’ve shared my own poetry, and these days my poems take the shape of prayers, or at least help me find the way to deep heart prayers. I have hesitated so often in sharing these due to many voices who say heart prayer need be “nothing more” than simple cries, such as “help!”. I get that. I pray that way too, sometimes. I don’t think prayer need be “eloquent”. I sure think it can be though. It’s less about manufacturing, more about finding and being found.

When I get quiet enough, I find an ache to spill out and reach for…not a demand of words, but for the wealth and warmth of words. It helps me find my way.

I’ve been thinking on these words for awhile:

“…the river of God is full of water…” -A Psalm of David, A Song 65:9 (b)

“Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord!…” -Lamentations 2:19 (a)

Then I found these words, in the thinking:

May the beauty of our God come and soften our hearts
May we have eyes to see and ears to hear
As the earth is softened by the rain
So are our hearts when we hear Him call our name

The river of God is full of water
Jesus said He would put it within us

May our prayers pour like waterfalls
Then the ground will be blessed

Rain trickles down the banks and fills
The swelling rushes
I feel its swiftness inside of me
Painful as it makes its music over my stones

Enlivening to the point of wakefulness
I do not know how to disclose
I fight futile the power running raw
It’s very nature is transparency

Bursting or thirsting, it’s clear as crystal
That runs over and through
Stunning and cutting as pure light
All thronging, surrounding, surging my yes to truth

The river of God is full of water
Jesus said He would put it within us

I didn’t know what He meant, how it would pour
How our lives joined together would pour like waterfalls

Now the ground will be blessed
The ground we need drenched
Nurtured when we learn how to pray free-fall
Pouring like the waterfall

Hands upraised, now diving deep
Run the river and see
See how the falls feed
Life springing everywhere because of need

Roots yawning extensively, green springing tenderly
I stop, startled, and ask, “All from need?”
I already know as the question formed on my lips
Need has become answer, not mistake

Need heralds the way
The digger of the steep ravine
Need—the crier, shouts, Your King comes
You never fall alone, not once

The River of God is full of water
Jesus said He would put it within us

I didn’t know what He meant, how it would pour
How our lives joined together would pour like waterfalls

Lower now, watch in the green valley
Gaze where the deer, squirrels and beaver eat
Sustaining provision sprawling, fed from falls that fell free
Fall free

May our prayers pour like waterfalls
In falling, may we see we’re free
Need is not the one barring the way
Need invites us beyond the grief

May we be unafraid to follow mercy’s lead,
the place beyond despair
that need took care to press to our breast
Unwrap there—the beautiful conversation, prayer

Pour out and find ourself filled
Ride the rushing river, be done with fight
Time, here now, is a pleasant place
where living waters flow and feed, all we need, all because of need, blessed need


This is my prayer for us all.

Looking to Jesus with you,

Raynna

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Whether you are a physical or spiritual parent, or simply soul hungry to let Mercy lead, I’m with you. I’ve written a book of honest prayers I’d love to put into your hands. We need each other. We need to be honest, pray and strengthen each other. My book is based on the prayer Jesus gave his disciples, with space for journaling as well as prompts to dig deeper in faith, not fear—Buy It Here.