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Hey everybody! If you haven’t listened to the Lent series, part one and part two, go back and listen. Today I will continue talking to you about the Lenten prayer of Saint Ephrem. This prayer has proved to be very useful in this season of spring cleaning for your soul. We have already covered sloth and faint-heartedness. This week we will talk about the lust for power and idle talk.
The Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephrem
O Lord and Master of my life!
Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust for power, and idle talk.
But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Your servant.
Yes, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For You are blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.
What is Lust for Power?
- As strange as it may seem, it is sloth and faint-heartedness that fills our hearts with a lust for power.
- If my life is not oriented toward God, not aimed at eternal values, it will inevitably become selfish and self-centered and this means that all other beings will become means to my own self-satisfaction.
- If God is not the Lord and Master of my life, then I become my own lord and master – the absolute center of my own world, and I begin to evaluate everything in terms of my needs, my ideas, my desires and my judgments.
- The lust for power is a fundamental depravity in my relationship to others, a search for their subordination to me.
- It is not necessarily expressed in the actual urge to command and to dominate others.
- It may result in
- Indifference
- Contempt
- Lack of interest
- Lack of consideration
- Lack of respect
- It is sloth and despondency directed this time at others; it completes spiritual suicide with spiritual murder
What is Idle Talk?
- Of all creation on earth, humankind alone is endowed with the gift of speech.
- The Fathers saw this as the “seal” of the Divine Image in man because God Himself is revealed as Word.
- Being the supreme gift, it is also a supreme danger.
- The power of life and death are in the tongue.
- We may use it to fulfill and express
- To give life and hope
- To steal, kill and destroy
- It is a means of making Covenant and of betrayal.
- Words save and words kill.
- Words inspire and words poison.
- Words can Proclaim Truth and Spread Lies.
- When deviated from the divine origin and purpose, the word becomes It
- Matt 12:36-37, “And I tell you this, that you must give an account on judgment day of every idle word you speak. The words you say now reflect your fate then; either you will be justified by them or you will be condemned.”
Lust of Power and Idle Talk are the objects of our repentance
- They are the obstacles to be removed
- Only God can remove them
- Hence, the first part of this Lenten Prayer – this cry from the bottom of human helplessness.
- Then this prayer moves to the positive aims of repentance:
Applications:
Psalm 19:14
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
Daily Practice:
- Prayer and Devotional Reading using The Book of Common Prayer (or whatever you use)
- The Lenten Prayer of St Ephrem
- Journaling can be helpful
- During prayer, a “little seed” or thought may come to the surface, follow it.
Recommended Resources
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I am among the more than two dozen missionaries supported by the Foursquare Missions International Global Missions Fund. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.
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Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
