THE BEAUTIFUL GARDEN OF PRAYER

         You need to see your doctor, but he is on vacation and not available.  You need to consult a surgeon but the first available appointment is three months away.  You want to talk to a friend but it is the middle of the night and you don't want to wake him.  Been there, experienced all those situations.  And it can be discouraging.  But there is one who is always there, 24/7.  He never goes on vacation and He wants to listen and answer.  And He is the only one who can really help our need.  Of course, I am talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.  What a wonderful gift of prayer He has given us and so often we fail to use it to share with Him our needs and the needs of others.  And probably even worse, we often get so involved in our needs that we fail to praise Him and thank Him.  Because of two recent operations, I have had much time lately to share with Him, at all hours of the day and night.  They been refreshing times, maybe even like walking with Him through a beautiful garden on a cool clear day.  We don't know much at all about the author of the lyrics of this week's hymn choice, Eleanor Allen Schroll, 1878-1966.  However she lived in a city with a view of a busy street in front of her and roofs and chimneys behind her.  I have to imagine that she may have been a prayer warrior and despite the views out her window, she could envision spending time with the Savior in a beautiful garden, a garden of prayer.  Maybe she received some inspiration from the story of Christ praying in the garden.  "They came to a place named Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples, Sit here while I pray." Mark 14:32.  We really don't know what caused her to write about a garden of prayer.  The tune to this hymn was composed by James Henry Fillmore (1849-1936), a well-known music publisher among churches of Christ and Christian Churches in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.  What a refreshing thought to know that Jesus is always waiting for us to share in prayer and that we can go to Him with our burdens and care.  And He will comfort us, any day, any time.  He bids us to come.  Obviously the figurative language is used throughout the song to help us appreciate better the benefits that are available to us in prayer. Thus, we should seek to go as often as we possibly can to "The Beautiful Garden Of Prayer."

1.     There's a garden where Jesus is waiting,

There's a place that is wondrously fair;

For it glows with the light of His presence,

'Tis that beautiful garden of prayer. 

Refrain:

Oh, the beautiful garden, the garden of prayer,

Oh, the beautiful garden of prayer;

There my Savior awaits, and He opens the gates

To the beautiful garden of prayer. 

2.    There's a garden where Jesus is waiting,

And I go with my burden and care

Just to learn from His lips words of comfort,

In the beautiful garden of prayer. 

Refrain:

Oh, the beautiful garden, the garden of prayer,

Oh, the beautiful garden of prayer;

There my Savior awaits, and He opens the gates

To the beautiful garden of prayer. 

3.    There's a garden where Jesus is waiting,

And He bids you to come meet Him there;

Just to bow, and receive a new blessing,

In the beautiful garden of prayer. 

Refrain:

Oh, the beautiful garden, the garden of prayer,

Oh, the beautiful garden of prayer;

There my Savior awaits, and He opens the gates

To the beautiful garden of prayer. 

Listen to it here.   LISTEN