Serving the Lord
“It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, Deuteronomy 11:13 NASB
To serve Him with all your heart – Maimonides points out that the Hebrew expression, le’ovdo bekol levavkem, has more than one meaning. As Avraham Weiss notes: “Le is the prefix ‘to.’ Ovdo is associated with avoda, work. And while le’ovdo is commonly viewed as a compound of la’avod Oto, ‘to serve Him,’ it can also mean la’avod Ito, ‘to work with Him.’”[1] Weiss suggests that prayer is, in fact, a cooperative venture with God, a time when we engage our best efforts on His behalf and He empowers us to accomplish His will. In other words, prayer is the process by which the world is restored. It is not limited to communicating concerns, praise or requests. Prayer can actually be the actions I take when I am involved in tikkun, “repairing.” As Heschel once remarked, “I am praying with my feet.”
Weiss’ footnote about the interpretation of Soloveitchik’s view of Maimonides is instructive:
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik understands Maimonidean prayer as reflecting the ever present feeling of human inadequacy and inner struggle. In his words: “[Maimonides regarded] daily life itself as being existentially in straits, inducing in the sensitive person feelings of despair, a brooding sense of life’s meaninglessness, absurdity, lack of fulfillment. It is a persistent tzara, which exists bekol yom, daily. The word tzara connotes more than external trouble; it suggests and emotional and intellectual condition in which man sees himself as hopelessly trapped in a vast, impersonal universe, desolate, without hope.”
The need to pray, according to Maimonides, comes from the petitioner as an expression of constant angst when God is not near.[2]
To view prayer as cooperative effort is to welcome God back into the daily struggle and to lean upon His promise in spite of the feeling of His absence. Taking action under these circumstances is in essence to say, “Lord, I am going to repair this world in ways that I am able, and You, Lord, who have called me to this task, I invite to join me so that I may accomplish what You desire and in the process discover that You are here with me.”
If your prayers seem to bounce off a lead ceiling, perhaps it is time to pray with your feet.
Topical Index: prayer, with, serve, le’ovdo, la’avod Ito, work, Deuteronomy 11:13
[1] Avraham Weiss, Holistic Prayer, p. 20.
[2] Ibid.
Step One: Take the first step.
Step Two: Repeat.
I’ve had so many questions about prayer. Thank you for the insight. Perhaps Holistic Prayer would be a helpful read!! Yes, Michael, one step at a time.
In some way I find this a relief. I know you have in a past lecture that through prayer we become human. With that in mind we need to pray continuously so that we are constantly on the road of becoming human. My thought before hand was, “well that’s a heck of a lot of prayer and I have to go to work shortly and as soon as the first meeting starts I have to stop praying or I’ll miss the action items ie my road to become human ends”. But it would seem that’s not the case now. One could pray all day.
Prayer is an action. Prayer is the flux of change. Prayer is the cusp of my response to the moment. Prayer is the shifting of myself so as to try to find the place that lines me up with where heaven is at with each encounter with reality. In my life, this looks like, when it is operating correctly, more like a running conversation than anything else. “Did You see that? What do You want me to make out of that? I am so frustrated here: hey, could You show me why? I am falling down. I want to take a break. Thank You for the beauty I see right now. I think You did it all just for me. I feel loved. Can You please clarify this discrepancy? Please give me Your heart for that person. I feel bad that I hit that bird. How can You stand all this? Where is Your joy now? I need it. Thank You for that. Please show me why I am stuck here. I am being harsh toward myself. Where was I harsh in this way toward another? I want to repent.” This can, ideally, go on all day.
Life is something to be shared with Another; not something to be hoarded for myself. Flavor gets added to my daily bread when I break it with a Friend, for He comes with the meal; waiting to be invited to sit and share. Hey, He IS the meal! I am going to be starving by myself!
Prayer, for me, is learning how to dance with Another, and when I get the steps down, I can then turn around and do the same with another next to me. Love is a chain re-action: an action that I allow heaven to start with me, through me, and beyond me. Hands are for holding. He does the rest. It never WAS ‘up to me’! Rest is where I hold a place open for His heart to manifest. Rest, Einstein, IS an absolute! Paul said “I am a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ”. He knew not to take as much as a step on his ‘own’ cognition.
Life is a three-legged race: heaven gets the first leg, then I add one, and then I grab whatever is next to me and bind it to heaven’s purposes through what I can see Love wanting to do in that place. In this way order is restored; not THROUGH, or, because of, chaos, but by superimposing – by super-positioning – an entirely new potential, thus filling the empty space that chaos represents with the fullness of His love through me. Prayer is where I line myself up with that Light trajectory.
The line in the second to the last paragraph in Today’s Word that says that a person is to invite YHVH to join him or her so they may accomplish YHVH’s desire seems very backwards to me. Shouldn’t we be asking YHVH if He would help us to join Him so we can fit in His desire each day??? I see this principle as being very important ….who are we to ask the Elohim of the Universe to join us in our efforts when we should really be asking Him if He would help us join Him in His desire.
My thought also.
But you may have missed the context. If my desire and effort is to repair the world according to His purposes, then I do invite Him to join with me. That doesn’t mean I do what I want and ask His help It means I am already committed to His ways and now deliberate ask Him to assist.
AS YOU WORRY ABOUT JUST SURVIVAL IT IS DIFFICULT TO HEAL OR TAKE ON MORE POSSIBLE SURGIES , OR JUST AS MOST CHRISTAN AND SUPERIOR ALL KNOWING RELIGOUS TAKE A CLASS OR HAVE MORE FAITH.. CLOSE TO THE EDGE SEEING A NEW THERAPIST TODAY SENCOND APPOINTMENT, THERE RESPONSE GET WELL AND GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE IN THE FEW ALOTTED APPOINTMENTS AND HERE IS A PILL DON’T FEEL AND SORRY IT MAY KNOCK YOU OUT MAKE YOU DIZZY AND CAUSE UNUSAL SIZURES OR ANGER, YOUR SMART ENOUGH FIQURE IT OUT FOR YOUR SELF OR SOME PROGRAM WILL HELP YOU . MAY BE OBAMA WILL CARE ENOUGH SOME DAY … SO I ASK ALL OF YOU TODAY TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES AND PLEASE PRAY FOR G-DLY SOULOTIONS HEALING AND LOVING CARING PEOPLE RESOURCES AND A HOME AND TO GET OVER IT AND GET ON WITH MY LIFE.
AS SKIP QUOTES , “.Prayer can actually be the “actions” ( I MIGHT HAVE TO LOOK AND SIT WITH SOMEONE I DON’T KNOW AND TRY TOHAVE EMPTHATY OR COMPASSION OR FORGIVE THEM AND ADMIT I AM WRONG OR I MAY HAVE BEEN ANGRY OR i LOVE AND CARE FOR YOU AND I AM DEEPLY SORRY HOW COULD WE HELP AND ASK THE PERSON NOT MAKE SPECULATIONS OR ASSUMPIONS SOME PROGAM WILL HELP THEM..) I take when I am involved in tikkun, “repairing.” As Heschel once remarked, “I am praying with my feet.” HAVE A PRAYER PETICURE THANKS FOR LISTENING..
Thanks for the comment, but could you please not use ALL CAPS. In blog protocol, this is like SHOUTING.
So Sorry, Please forgive my emotional capatialztion a dslexic typing Please forgive my intense feeligs , praying out loud in capital letters so prayer with no emotions without shoes got it.. Please forgive me I not an experienced blogger all have a great day.. Blessings and peace..
Don’t feel offended. Of course you didn’t know. Not a problem. Please put emotion in your comments. that’s important. But not every word is a shout.
Worship While You Work
A Servant’s Heart
“[Adam] Serve [abad] the LORD [ADONAI] with gladness!” (Psalm 100.2)
Adam, “abad” and adore ADONAI, amein!
“Abad” – a foursquare word. One word -four meanings. A good practical ‘Gospel’ word. Work, worship, love and serve – “abad.” Yes, what really matters is who you work for, and my Boss is a Jewish carpenter! He is risen from the dead, and He is LORD!
We are the body of Christ. We are His hands and His feet. Christ is our Life.
But if (no, “since”) -we are the Body (thank you, Casting Crowns)
Why aren’t His arms reaching?
Why aren’t His hands healing?
Why aren’t His words teaching?
And if we are the body
– Why aren’t His feet going?
Why is His Love not showing them He is the Way?
For by this shall all men know you are My disciples, if you have love ..
– serve [abad] the LORD with gladness!! We serve God by serving people! – “Serve one another, in love.”
All people, everywhere.. starting with our neighbor,- the one in closest proximity. “Let tHis mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus..” – a Servant’s Heart.
How may I serve you today?