Dayenu, Jewish Prayer of Gratitude, Ep 12

This episode we descuss adampting the Jewish prayer of gratitude, the Dayenu, making it personal to us. Time spent reorienting our perspective,

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to the Lafayette Prayer Room Podcast, where we discuss what it looks like to grow in God through prayer, worship, and life in the context of a prayer room. My name is Janie Myers, and today we're going to be discussing the Jewish prayer, the Daenu. Our prayer room is located in Lafayette, Louisiana. So let's define what the Dayenu is. And hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly, Dieenu.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

That's our best guess at how to say it, Dieenu. So it's a traditional Jewish song sung at Passover Seder. In Hebrew, Daenu means it would have been enough. And if you've watched The Chosen, then you saw season five, episode four, where they were sitting around the table with Jesus, and the episode keeps coming back to them saying this prayer or song that we just kind of fell in love with, and we were like, this would be awesome to do a worship with the word with it. So that's why we decided to dive into it. Um, so you can literally use the word Dianu interchangeably with it would have been enough. It literally means that. Uh, and it's a song sung about Israel's history with God. It's all of the things really going back to the Moses story, them coming out of Egypt.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, it's 15 stanzas long, and it goes through all of God's miracles for them. I mean, not all, but like you said, them coming out of Egypt being led into the promised land. And with each thing, it's like, it would have been enough if you would have just done this. But you went on and did more. And so it's just a beautiful prayer of gratitude.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yeah, so I'm gonna read just a few of the stanzas for those who haven't heard it to have just uh a good idea of what we're talking about. So some of them are um if he had split the sea for us and had not taken us through it on dry land, it would have been enough. If he had taken us through it on dry land and had not pushed down our enemies in the sea, it would have been enough. If he had pushed down our enemies in the sea and had not supplied our needs in the wilderness for 40 years, it would have been enough. If he had supplied our needs in the wilderness for 40 years and had not fed us manna, it would have been enough. If he fed us manna and had not given us the Shabbat, it would have been enough. That's a few stanzas of the Dainu, uh, the Jewish prayer.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

And so what we did was we kind of made it personal and took things from the New Testament and Jesus and made it a personal prayer for us. Now we weren't doing replacement theology. We do not believe that the church replaces Israel. We believe every promise, covenant for Israel stands forever. God is a covenant-keeping God. But there were some really personal ways that we could bring this in to do a worship with the word in our context.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

So we adapted it, uh, some of the language while preserving the essence of it, but you'll hear some of the differences that we made kind of to fit us, because we really wanted it to be a time where we explored what the Lord has done for us in a personal way. So some of our stanzas are uh if he had not healed or fed one person, it would have been enough. If he had not given us his word to guide us, it would have been enough. If he had not made disciples and apostles, it would have been enough. If he had shed only one drop of blood for us, it would have been enough. If he had not laid down his life on the cross, he would still be loving. If he had not laid down his strength, he would still be meek and humble. So we kind of um made it points where we could really meditate on it and explore who he was through some of the things he's done. That's kind of why we took that direction with it, but still in the spirit of it, I guess you could say, made it our own.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Yeah, and I loved it because we got to spend, well, we had I forget how many different points we had, thinking we were gonna do them all in one worship with the word, and we got through one focus um in the two hours. We've got we got through like six.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

We got through a third of it.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Right, one third of what we had planned. And but I loved it because it gave us so much time to sit there and really look at Jesus and the extravagant lengths he went to went through to show his love for us and even what the Father gave, you know, by sending him. Um, so the time spent just staring at it did bring up so much gratitude and love.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

It did. And because for the last few months in our worship with the words, we've been walking through the life of Jesus on earth, we've been walking through all the episodes of the cross. So we are fresh off of what he did. So to then sit with this after coming off of all of that, I felt like we were so positioned to appreciate it more had we not been in that for months already, spending some time. So it was really cool that the Lord just dropped it in our because we saw it long ago, over a year ago. Uh, but the idea to do it didn't come till later. So it was really cool that the timing of it landed right after we had been spending all that time looking at everything that Jesus had just done.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Yeah, I kind of I thought it was neat because, like, you know, his love endures forever is the common phrase in in songs or whatever. And just I saw it through this, like just the more and more love. Like, I loved you so much, I came. No, I loved you so much, I fed everybody. No, I loved you so much I healed. No, I delivered. No, you know, I taught, I made disciples, I laid down my life, I came, I rose again. Like just that his love endures forever. It's on and on, it's more, it's more. Like it keeps going, it keeps building almost like light going forth forever. Like love goes forth forever and it keeps expanding, and it's more, it's more than we, even though I feel like I've touched the love of God, I know it's it's so small when I've tasted.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

And I remember one of at one point in our worship with the word, um, just singing, and you give and you give and you give, you give, and you give and you give, and every point of that giving is extravagant. Every little thing that he did, but not only did he do one huge thing, it it's continual, it's still unfolding and going on. Like he gives and he gives and he gives the accusation that he is stoic or indifferent or removed from us. He is up close and is personal as it's beyond what's even possible. Like he's gone beyond. He gives and he gives and he gives. His nature is generous, and the nature of love is to give. The nature of love is to share love. Real love wants to share, it wants to be generous, and he is love. And as we just keep staring at what he did, it helps me see more love in each part of it than I did before. Like you said, I have touched some of it because I have more revelation than I used to have. That's what touching some of it means. I do feel more of it and I'm aware, I have more discernment and revelation, but I know we're at the tip of the iceberg. Like we we barely crack the door, which makes it fun to have just this endless ocean of what we can explore in his love. And they are layers and layers and layers of revelation. And that's why we sit in a worship with the word and we're prodding, asking for more, saying, Thank you that you showed me this. Now show me more. Because he loves to do it, like that's what he loves to do. So it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

It is it is fun, it's fun to do it together and see what courses you'll come up with or Josh comes up with, and I'll think, Oh, yeah, that moves something in me, and then I'll, you know, we can pray off of it. It's fun to do it as a group.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Team ministry. Yeah. So we'll break down and discuss a little bit. It's it's a long-form prayer. So we just kind of broke it down, kind of methodically going through it in small portions. Um, but there's something to the repetition and the cadence that keeps pointing me back to him, pointing me back to what was done, pointing me back to what I do not deserve. Um, he owes me nothing. He owes me nothing. I deserve hell. Like I am condemned and a sinner who deserves hell. But he came to save and then give so much more on top of that, beyond belief on top of that. So it kept just that gratitude would well up because I do try to work on gratitude, but it made it come up in me in areas uh not to that degree that it was flowing before.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

I agree. And with gratitude for him comes love for him as well, you know, like oh, how can we not love a God that will go through these lengths? And even I can feel the accusation of well, you know, people will say, You say you love me, but prove it. You know, I've heard people say that to other people, and here Jesus couldn't do more to prove his love. And yet there's still accusation that he doesn't love, you know, like what else could he do if you sit and look at it the way we did? It's undeniable. Yeah. So did you have any um favorite parts? I hate to say favorite because there's so many good parts, but something that stands out from when we did it.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Yeah, uh, I think it was the first stanza where it talked about you didn't have to put on flesh or become human, but you did, like you didn't have to do it that way. And it kept kicking me back to throughout doing the Dianu, both the said all three. I kept thinking back to however many years ago, thousands, millions, I don't know, but between the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, like deciding this was gonna be the plan, deciding they were gonna do it this way. You know, we're gonna create the galaxies, the earth, humans, and how do we bring them into our family, like to be a true family? Oh, you're gonna go, you know, or did Jesus say, let me go? You're like, what was the discussion within the Godhead, however long back? Because they could have done it, they're brilliant. They they have a mind like we do not understand. They could have made the plan unfold in many other ways than that, but they decided to do it that way, and Jesus could have been like, I don't want to leave heaven, you know. Like, he lives in the beauty realm, in the throne room, around the father and the lightnings and thunderings and the elders and the creatures, like he lives in absolute the beauty realm. Why would you leave that? But he came into darkness so that we could be brought into the light. Like it just made me see like y'all could have done it other ways, but you chose to do it this way. This reveals parts of their heart, this reveals how they think, it reveals how he feels about me. So I was just discovering more of him, aspects of him. At first, before I kept looking at what it's done for me, I kept thinking, how did y'all even come up with this? Like, what was the thinking, the emotion behind this? So that's kind of where I went at first.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

I know I do love that. Um, trying to think what was in the heart of the father or in Jesus. Like, what did Jesus feel the first time he healed someone on earth? You know, like what was that like? Like, here I am, I'm doing it, I'm doing what I came for at the beginning of it, just putting yourself into the story, which is what we did here, is putting ourselves walking with Jesus. And something I love about the Tai Nu is that kind of acts as a reset, like puts our heart back on gratitude and not just needing the next thing. Because the problem with having me always needs-based prayer, which of course I pray for my needs and my family's needs, or even why you don't just chase miracles is because there's always a need for another one. You know, like if I heal today, I I could be sick tomorrow, or whatever. And that's great. I mean, we want to pray for miracles, we want to pray for needs, but this puts us on no, he's done more than enough. He's given us everything we need for life and godliness, according to scripture. He's done more than enough. I don't need, I don't need one more thing. Like he's given extravagantly to me already.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah, it reframes expectation to gratitude instead of entitlement. Like, why didn't you do this for me? God, the accusations that we all have those moments we throw out until we come back to center, you know, like you let this happen, or why didn't you do that, or I deserve this? This shouldn't have happened. And while there may be some injustice, that there may be some truth to some of those things that sting us, uh, the truth is he owes us nothing. I've heard people say through the years, like demanding an answer as though they are owed. And he's already given us everything we need for life and godliness. It may not be what I think I need or what I want, or the timing that I want it, but I know his nature is good. I know he is for me, and I know he will work all things together for those that love him. So I have to trust that in the times when that accusation wants to come up in me, or when there's doubt, when there's pain. Well, we have pain, is when we make the accusation, or and sometimes we won't say it, but we feel it. We have that offense, that little bitty offense in our heart. But this totally calm back, it's a weapon against that. But you are walking in gratitude, it starts to be the lens you see a lot of things through. But I notice for me, the more I relate to him through gratitude and say it out of my mouth, the more it shifts my thinking and it it becomes a filter that now I'm looking at everything through instead of trying to wade through things I don't like and not be offended. That's hard. But walking in gratitude makes it still hard sometimes, but it makes it easier.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

And then even within the Diana, we started praying, uh, or saying, like, if he had not rose again and showed himself, he'd still be at the right hand of the Father. And we went through that and the resurrection, going through the resurrection has also put our minds back on eternity. Like this age is not what we're living for. So the comfort of this age, I mean, of course, we like comfort, but it's not the main thing. It's not eternity, like there's something so much bigger that we're living for, and putting your eyes on that also makes walking through whatever you're walking through on earth easier because it's a moment and there's something far greater coming.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

And it helps me find him also just in the everyday mundane uh gratitude. So it helps me find him just in the the mundane tasks that we all do without even thinking, or we don't like that we have to do them. But if I have gratitude a little more at the forefront of my mind, we're American Christians, we have it good. Like many of the things we complain about are just inconveniences, they are not crisis. We shouldn't even let them get to the level of aggravation, which we all do all the time. But gratitude helps me to rein that in. Gratitude makes me see it differently and find him in a lot of just the little annoyances that can cast kind of a negative attitude on me for a while if I let it. Uh, but this has definitely helped combat that. Also, another thing with a Dianu is it helps me see more of the incremental blessings, uh, the smaller portions that it wasn't the whole thing that I wanted, or I wanted this situation to be like this, and it's not, but this happened to recognize he's moving sometimes, not the way I want, the timing I want, but he is, and to appreciate those things. If I'm only looking for what I want, like you said, in kind of me-centered prayers or me-centered relationship with God, it if I'm always looking at me, my world, my circumstances, then it's hard to see his goodness and where he has done things or what he might want to do that's different than me. But when I keep putting my eyes on him, which gratitude does, when I keep looking at him and talking to him, then I start to see outside of my world, and my world doesn't look as big. It it kind of shrinks. Not that things aren't important, but they're most of the time not as big as we make them. It's not as big a crisis as we think it is, it's not as devastating as we think it is many times when it's put in perspective of him and what he's done. So it's helped me significantly with that.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yeah, what I started doing and not every day, but quite a few times at night when I'm going to bed, I'll kind of do my own dianu of my day. Like, Jesus, if all you would have done was woke me up today. Like that would have been enough. But no, when I sat down with my Bible, like light came in, and that would have been enough. But then you gave me a job that provides for my family, and you know, like trying to be grateful for things just throughout my day, and that's even changed perspectives of things.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

And I just want to emphasize this again, we've been saying it, but I think it's such a key part of gratitude is saying it out of your mouth. It heightens it to a different level than just a thought or an emotion, which those are great. But there is something when we come into agreement with truth out of our mouth that releases something different in me and out into the world I'm living. But saying the the just the smallest, like thank you, I have a car today. Thank you, air conditioning, like all the just the little things. Thank you. I can I have my gas in my in my tank. So just I start there sometimes, but it never stays there. It especially once you develop, you work the muscle of gratitude when you start with just the the obvious small things. If you stay on that track very shortly, it's it's things that are bigger and deeper, meaning just like thank you, you saved me. Thank you, I have Holy Spirit. I get to hear your voice. It can quickly go somewhere that now the heart's flowing like a river, and it's love. It's love. Yeah. Because I find that gratitude, um, it's not just a feeling, that it is something that can become a rhythm of life. And I feel like that's kind of what we've been doing. We've been doing it for a few years. The Dianu just kind of is feeding into and helping us to do it a little bit more. Uh, but I don't just thank him for stuff when I feel like it, I guess, uh, is the point. Many times I do because the more you do it, the more it just comes out, or a little thing works out in the middle of the day. You know, I'm doing something and I know, oh, you made me see that, Lord, because you know, this is gonna help. I'm not gonna have to go back and do this. You let my eye catch that. Little of the smallest things now, I'm always like, oh, thank you, Lord, that was you. Like I'm recognizing it more because I'm doing it more. But it's because I'm creating a rhythm. I'm not um only waiting for the emotion because I even find sometimes when I really maybe I'm grumpy or I'm just I can feel a negative attitude on me, I really don't feel like being grateful, but I know I need to come in the opposite. So it helps to it definitely helps shift you out of it. But it's because I'm creating a rhythm and I'm not good at it, but because I'm doing it, I'm realizing that it's starting to flow a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Yeah, and it's not fake. Like, because some people are like, well, if I don't feel it, then it's not real, but that's not true. You know, our feelings they lie to us all the time, like kind of going a little bit off. But I was reading Psalm 1, which is real common, you know, um, bless is the man who does not take the counsel of the wicked. And the Lord just kind of showed me sometimes my own feelings and thoughts are the counsel of the wicked. Like just because I feel something doesn't mean it's true. So to go in the opposite and say, No, I am grateful despite what I'm feeling, it's not fake, that's real. It just I have to sometimes get my body lined back up. That's why Psalms is always saying, Bless the Lord, oh my soul, like constantly, you know, David or others are saying, Do it anyway. Because then then you come back into alignment, it's not fake.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Yeah, because our feelings lie to us all the time. Yeah, I can feel something and it not be true of this situation because we feel feelings because of our history, we feel feelings because of old wounds, something hits us, triggers us, that has not that much to do with the situation. My feelings are not giving the truth of the situation, but my feelings are something that I can choose to follow or to bring into alignment. I don't want to live by Tristan's emotions. That's gonna be a disaster. It may feel good for a second, but it's not gonna lead me where I want to go with him. One of The points in our set. Um, it was if you had not laid down your life on the cross, you would still be loving. And it was again kicking back to that within the Godhead, y'all decided this is what you wanted to do. Like, because they could have made the plan that he came to earth, but he didn't have to die. You know, he didn't have to become a human, that now he's forever human. He could have just stayed just God, not be God and human now, but he chose to do it that way. And he chose to put love on display. You you said it earlier. He alone gets to define what love is. He came and he proved it. He proved his love for all of humanity, for all time. So he defines love. That's that's the standard of what love is. They said this is the best way, like this is the wisest way, this is the most beautiful way. And in the end, we will look back and say, I'm so glad you led this way. It was the best way because you're love, you get to define what it is.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

I also really loved when we did communion within this one, and just being grateful that Jesus told us, do it. Like do this in remembrance of me. Take the bread, take the wine. Because now we do communion ever every set. We do communion every set. And uh and I think it's such a gift that he gave us. And so just him saying, like, not only did he just do it with his disciples, he he said, continue to do it and remember what I did. So it puts us back looking at Jesus and the cross in such a beautiful way all the time.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Yeah, because to me, communion is gratitude. Like when I take communion before him, like I stop and I focus on what he did on that cross. It was for me, it was for all of humanity and lean into it. We're sitting there saying thank you. Thank you. You gave your actual body, you gave your real blood, like your literal human blood for us, and it's for our healing, our deliverance, all of it. So I think that wraps up our discussion on the Day New. We hope that you guys got something out of it that maybe it encourages you to go look it up or make your own, kind of like what we did, uh, and spend time before the Lord. If you have a prayer group, it'd be awesome to do with others or just your time with the Lord for sure. So we're so glad that you guys chose to spend time with us today. You can find us on Facebook, on the Lafayette Praroom, on Instagram, on the prayer room Lafayette, or at our website, LafayettePraeroom.org. So until next time, bye guys. Bye.