Suffice it to say, then, that I thought this post was important enough, and a good redemption of the time God has given me. You may agree or disagree when you have read it, and that's ok.
A friend posted what is best known as "The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi" as a Facebook status today. Having learned that almost nothing that sounds spiritual can be taken at face value unless it is straight from scripture, I began to ponder on the following well-known and oft quoted lines:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy.
I decided to look more closely at these lines to discover if they meet the standard of a scriptural prayer.
First of all, the rules of hermeneutics demand that all text be examined in context, so I went looking for the context of this prayer. Curiously, though it is attributed to St. Francis because it was once inscribed upon the back of a statue of this man, it is not probable at all that he himself prayed it, said it, or wrote it. See this website for more information: http://www.franciscan-archive.org/franciscana/peace.html.
Then the first question to be answered was what sort of peace was meant in the prayer, and whether that matched up with a biblical definition of the word for peace.
English translations use one word where original manuscripts use several that have different meanings. For the purposes of this post, the one that seemed most likely to fit the use of the word in the prayer is one that means
"harmonious relationships between men" or perhaps "harmonious relationships between God and man as a result of the gospel"
It is not likely that the author of the prayer would have intended the other meaning of "peace" used in scripture: that meaning being "hold one's peace". (I would admit, however, that keeping my mouth shut would indeed, in most instances, cause me to be an instrument of peace rather than otherwise!)
Once this definition had been established, it was important to discover whether one can be an instrument of God's peace according to scripture. Matthew 5:9 states "blessed are the peacemakers". Being an "instrument" of harmonious relationships between men and between God and men as a result of the gospel is certainly, then, a scriptural directive, and therefore a proper scriptural prayer. We are commanded to preach the gospel, and also to live peaceably with all (Romans 12:18).
The next phrase says "where there is hatred let me sow love". We are commanded in scripture to love our enemies, to love as God loves. Therefore if we have hatred in our own hearts we should certainly be doing what we can to change that, and asking God to will and to do His good pleasure in us to cause us to love more like He loves is a valid prayer. Can we "sow love" on/to others who are hating? We have a mandate from scripture to do good to our enemies, so we can sow love to our enemies by doing good to them. What about to others who are hating each other? We perhaps can, if we begin with the peacemaking that is encouraging "harmonious relationships between God and man as a result of the gospel"..in other words, preaching the gospel.
Continuing on, the next phrase says "where there is injury pardon". We are instructed in scripture to forgive those who hurt us, so personally, we can pray this prayer and also carry it out. Can we, should we bestow pardon on those who have injured others? There is no responsibility in scripture given to us to forgive the sins of others against others. We have responsibilities toward them, but these responsibilities do not encompass forgiveness or pardon.
The next phrase suggests "where there is doubt, faith". Again...we are given direction in scripture concerning how to handle doubt within ourselves. Faith is a gift, however, and we cannot bestow it on others. The gift of faith comes from the hearing of the Word of God, though, so if we are preaching the gospel, God can make use of that, which would be an answer to the prayer of "making me an instrument of your peace."
"Where there is despair, hope". Not only where there is despair, but in season and out of season we are to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us. Now, that doesn't bestow hope automatically, but it certainly has the potential to do so...it offers the same reason for our hope to the other person.
"Where there is darkness, light". Jesus said that we, the regenerate, ARE the light of the world. So, where we are, there is light. We can "sow" light by just being there for people, and asking God to guide us to act like Him.
"Where there is sadness, joy". We as Christians are supposed to be very joyful! We cannot always change someone else's sadness to joy, but again, we can preach the gospel, which God can use to give the gift of faith, which in turn responds in repentance, and the result of that will be joy.
Is the prayer known as The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi a legitimate, scriptural prayer? In accordance with the Word of God, it is. As we pray it, we should be ready to preach the gospel, because that is the way to be an instrument of God's peace.
