{"id":98,"date":"2014-05-07T06:25:50","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T10:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/?p=98"},"modified":"2014-05-06T23:35:37","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T03:35:37","slug":"father-lift-our-eyes-in-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/father-lift-our-eyes-in-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Father Lift Our Eyes in Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Too often when we come to pray, our thoughts are set upon ourselves\u2014on our trials and struggles. We are overly mindful of our limitations and distress. And if we keep our attention fixed on ourselves and our circumstances, our praying can become mired in discouragement and confusion.<\/p>\n

It is God\u2019s gracious design, in giving us the wonderful privilege of prayer, to lift our eyes off of us and off of our sometimes bewildering troubles, and fix them upon Him\u2014on His sure character and person\u2014on His sure Word and promises. We dare not linger long surveying our cares and needs. We do better to look through them, above them, and to the very One who work all things for our good and His glory.<\/p>\n

The idea for this hymn came during the 1997 Southern Baptist Founders Conference. At that conference Iain Murray preached a series of messages on revival. On Friday evening, July 25, 1997, he concluded his message by speaking of our need for prayer. He admonished us in our prayers not to begin by looking at the world or or to our many needs. We must start by seeing God, knowing Who He is, what He has done, and what He promises to do. Unless we know God, we will not know how to pray.<\/p>\n

May God shine the light of His Word upon our prayers.<\/p>\n

\"Light<\/a><\/p>\n

Father, lift our eyes in prayer
\nWe Your glory would behold!
\nWe need light to see Your hand
\nAs Your perfect plan unfolds.
\nClearly let us see You, Lord
\nWhen we face dismay or loss
\nIn each trial let us see
\nNot our crisis, but Your cross.<\/p>\n

Lord, forgive our selfish prayers
\nWe forget to Whom we pray
\nAnd in folly bring advice
\nThinking we know best the way
\nShow us Lord Your perfect will
\nHelp us walk contentedly
\nYou, O Lord, know best the way
\nNone, Lord, can Your couns’lor be.<\/p>\n

Teach us, Lord, to know You well
\nThat we might have well to say
\nLift our thoughts to meditate
\nOn Your glory as we pray
\nDo not let our prayers arise
\nWith eyes fixed on want and need
\nLook beyond, above, and to
\nHim to Whom we come and plead<\/p>\n

Lord, remove our thoughts from self
\nWarm our words with words Your own
\nOn the Scriptures, set our minds
\nWhen in prayer we seek Your throne
\nThat we all may comprehend
\nWidth and length and depth and height!
\nFully know the love of Christ!
\nOn our prayers, Lord, shine Your light<\/p>\n

Words \u00a91998, 2014 Ken Puls
\nDownload free sheet music and lyric sheet<\/a> for this hymn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Too often when we come to pray, our thoughts are set upon ourselves\u2014on our trials and struggles. We are overly mindful of our limitations and distress. And if we keep our attention fixed on ourselves and our circumstances, our praying can become mired in discouragement and confusion. It is God\u2019s gracious design, in giving us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,22,31],"tags":[98,43,99,28,26],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hymn","category-music-for-worship","category-worship-song","tag-hymn","tag-light","tag-prayer","tag-trials","tag-word-of-god"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4lLgO-1A","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}