“PLATE” Prayer

Recently, while preparing for a Grammy Prayer gathering, I asked God to share His wisdom. I inquired how we, Grams, could pray deeper and more in accordance with His intentions. God’s answer, at first, confused me. The guidance He shared was to meditate on the reality that humans tend to “PLATE” pray; and while doing so, the majority completely miss the deep message contained within this form of intercession. My response informed Our Lord that I had asked Him for clarity, and He answered with confusion. God retorted back for me to ponder His words, and so I did.

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” (Psalm 51:2). In “PLATE” prayer, humans ask God to “take stuff off” and “put stuff on” their platter. God intends for prayer to, additionally, wash the plate. Let’s think about this.

We all come to God in prayer as plates. God, please take ______ off my plate; or God, please add ______ to my plate. This is not wrong prayer, but it is incomplete. The greatest power of prayer is not a give or take. It is a cleansing of the remaining tidbits of stains in our lives — the crumbs of sin left over from our choosing to, at times, allow “Satan to put “a forbidden apple” in our diets and on our plates. With plate in hand, we pray to God for takeout and delivery of our nourishment needs. God longs for our prayers to, also, include (and even prioritize) the washing of our plates through our seeking the continual flow of baptismal waters over our lives.

Do I, you, we see prayer only as a “remove or put on” plea? Truthfully, upon examination, too often I do. Frequently, my prayers are a “need to return or purchase” shopping spree at the mall. Sadly, I also routinely overlook my responsibility to take the soiled apparel of my life to the cleaners, both on my way to and from the shopping center.

Closer contemplation revealed to me that the aspects of “PLATE” prayer (take off, put on and wash) reflect the three Theological Virtues of Christian belief — Faith, Hope and Love. Is not Faith the belief that what we cannot handle alone, we can prayerfully give to God and await deliverance? Doesn’t the presence of Hope in our prayers add God’s power to feed into our lives what is good and longed for? What about Love? Without denial, our prayers must implore God’s love for us to, over and over again, remind us of the cleansing that occurred when our lives were submerged in the stain removal of our baptismal water. And yes, we do need to bring our new stains to God and ask for them to be washed away by His love.

The long and short of “PLATE” prayer is that “taking off and putting on” our plates is simple addition and subtraction. However, if our plates (life on earth) are to multiply into an eternity of feasting in Heaven, then prayer for us must, also, include reoccurring recall of (and reaching out for) God’s love, which forever washes our plates in the cleansing stream of Baptismal waters.

It’s time for all Children of God to set not only our tables, but also our prayers, with plates that nourish not solely our days on earth but “soul”y our eternity in Heaven.