In the last year or so I have started making prayer beads. In the examples above I have learned to make three types.
The Anglican or Christian Rosary has 33 beads. One this you can prayer the Jesus prayer or the Come Lord Jesus prayer. It has an Invitatory bead, four Cruciform beads and 28 smaller weeks beads.
The one decade rosary has 11 beads – an Our Father bead and 10 Hail Mary’s. This is small enough to be easily carried in your pocket.
The traditional Rosary is the longer one that is used by Catholics to pray the Marian Rosary or the Divine Mercy.
I have mainly making them for my own enjoyment and to learn a new skill. I have given away quite a few of them as gifts to be a blessing.
Over the last few weeks I have been making my way through Psalm 119 for my devotions. I have been taking it slow and only doing eight verses a day. This is so I can really take it in and meditate on the text.
As I have been making my through I have noticed it has used the word revive or revived several times…
Psalm 119:25 NLT [25] I lie in the dust; revive me by your word.
Psalm 119:149 NLT [149] In your faithful love, O LORD, hear my cry; let me be revived by following your regulations.
Psalm 119:156 NLT [156] LORD, how great is your mercy; let me be revived by following your regulations.
In these three verses the writer is asking God to revive him and he asks God to do it by His Word and then following it.
Throughout Psalms we see David and the other writers telling God how much they love His Word and following His decrees. It is a their greatest joy.
As I reflected on this I remembered a conversation I had years ago. I was going through a flat spot in my faith. I had lost my motivation and my joy.
While talking with a wise older woman at church she asked how much time I had been spending in the Bible lately. I realised I was preparing sermons, but not really reading the Bible for my devotions.
Reading the Bible for my devotions is about enjoying God’s Word and meditating on it. It is about letting it sink deep in to your soul and filling your heart. I realised I had stopped doing that.
The older woman prayed for me and asked God to give me a real love for His Word and a desire to spend time in it. After a few weeks of time in the Word for devotional reading I find my motivation and joy coming back.
Like David prayed in Psalm 119:25, “…revive us by Your Word”, it happened to me. I felt my faith come alive again. My desire to read the Bible, pray, serve in church, share my faith all came back.
I was so thankful for the Bible and the wisdom of the older lady at my church. Like a doctor writes a prescription for a sick patient, she gave me the right prescription for my faith.
Prayer
Dear God, please give me a desire to read and meditate on Your Words in the Bible. Help me to read it every day. As I do Lord, please revive me by Your Word. Amen
Here is another version of the Jesus prayer I pray sometimes when I am praying with others or I am praying for my family. This one uses the word “us” instead of “me”.
On the Cross
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
O God, Make speed to save us, O Lord, Make haste to help us.
The Invitatory
Matthew 6:9-13 KJV [9] Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. [10] Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. [11] Give us this day our daily bread. [12] And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. [13] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
The Cruciforms
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.
The Weeks
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Have mercy on us, sinners.
End cruciform
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, Save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, Especially those in most need of Your mercy.
End Invitatory
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, a world without end. Amen.
The Cross
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
Over the last year or so I have prayed the Jesus prayer a lot, especially on my prayer beads. The Jesus prayer says, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”.
The Jesus Prayer is founded in biblical passages and popularized by the Desert Fathers in the 4th and 5th centuries.
Key scriptural influences include…
The cries for mercy from the blind man in Luke 18:38 (“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”)
The ten lepers in Luke 17:13 (“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”)
The tax collector in Luke 18:13 (“God, be merciful to me, I am a sinner”).
The prayer also reflects the biblical call to “pray without ceasing” that is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
I tend to pray the words very slowly and deliberately. I breathe in and silently pray “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God”. Then I breathe out and say, “Have mercy on me, a sinner”.
Heavenly Father and God of mercy, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for He is alive and has become the Lord of Life. From the waters of death, you raise us with Him and renew your gift of life within us.
Increase in our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
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