Christ Dwelling and Delighting in Us--a Prayer/Affirmation

On one of our walks during Music Week, my Florida friend gave me a prayer/affirmation that she often uses, and then she sent me a link.

Here's the prayer/affirmation:

"I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights. I live in the strong and unshakeable Kingdom of God.  The kingdom is not in trouble and neither am I."

James Bryan Smith is the one who gets the credit.  He talks about how the sentences came to him in The Next Right Thing podcast done by Emily P. Freedman:

"The story isn’t as great as I like, I should probably make up a better one. In truth, i happened accidentally. I was teaching the first phrase, “I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights” came about when I was teaching a college class, undergraduate class and I was trying to communicate with the students something very important about Apostle Paul. That is the Apostle Paul in his epistles used the phrase, In Christ or In Christ in us by my count around 89 times. That’s a lot. So, I was stunned at the sheer size, the amount at the time. Wow, if Paul uses that phrase and self identifies as being in Christ or Christ in us, then that should be the dominant way we understand our identity as Christians. So, I was up in front of the classroom. I had written 89 times on the board and I’m talking about all of this stuff. I said at the end of the day, folks, as Christians, have to understand we are people in whom Christ dwells and to the class as I was saying those words, just like your listeners, there was a student in the front row, his name is Chris, and I’m still in contact with Chris, he is a doctor now. But, he raised his hand and asked if I could say that again. And I said, we are people in whom Christ dwells and I could tell that when I said the phrase the phrasing had some spiritual energy and I believe it does because first of all, it is biblical and it’s dealing with truth that we didn’t just make up as power of positive thinking. It’s actually rooted in biblical reality. So, I think that certain words and phrases have that kind of power. Dallas Willard said that he prayed for those kinds of words and phrases because he knew the power. Dallas had so many phrases like that. They are so quotable.  Dallas said, quit quoting me. I said I can’t say it any better."

I like the idea of praying for the right words and phrases.  Smith says, "Speaking of writers, I think it was Mark Twain that said, The difference between goodbwords and the right word is the difference between a lightning bug and lightning. The idea of well, it’s a good word, but it’s like POW!, like lightning, it has life to it, when the words come together just the right way."

You can listen and/or download a transcript here.