Harry Emerson Fosdick writes:
“Deep in every one of us lies the tendency to pray. If we allow it to remain merely a tendency, it becomes nothing but a selfish, unintelligent, occasional cry of need. But understood and disciplined, it reveals possibilities whose limits have never been found.”
Spend time in prayer in order to maintain that connection with God. Our spiritual health depends on it.
Peace
Jim
In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul tells us to be, “Joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.” Sounds like good advice…but difficult advice.
I think I, and most people, are fairly joyful in hope. But I, as well as many people, don’t seem to be be too patient in affliction, and myself and many others are very often lacking in the faithful in prayer department too. That doesn’t mean we’re bad people, in fact we might be pretty good people…we just don’t spend as much time in prayer as we ought to. It is through our prayer time being connected with God that we learn more fully how to be joyful in hope and patient in affliction.
Peace
Jim
“I will lift up mine yes unto the hills, from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2)
Prayer…there’s no better way to start a day or to begin a decision-making process.
Peace
Jim
Someone told me once that they really didn’t pray, they just “talked to God.” And I said something like, “That’s all there is to prayer, just talk to God.”
Sometimes we get so caught up in thinking about how to pray that we fail to pray at all simply because we think that God is so holy that to approach him without knowing some special language means that God will be insulted if we just talk to him.
Remember the disciples asked Jesus once how they should pray. And Jesus basically told them that praying was an easy thing. Just talk to God.
Just before Jesus’ death he prayed one of those conversational prayers. John records his words. Read them in a newer translation (Jesus didn’t speak King James). Take about five minutes and read the Gospel of John chapter 17.
Peace
Jim
I’ve heard lots of people say that their prayers aren’t eloquent like other people’s prayers. Some folks seem to bow their head and out rolls all these beautiful phrases that make us say, “What a beautiful prayer.” Well, I am not one of those people. Many of my prayers both personal and corporate sometimes sound to me like a train wreck. But I had a talk with Jesus one day, and you know what? Jesus seems to think that as long as it comes from my heart, he really doesn’t care what it sounds like. I think he had something to say to religious people once about the idea of authentic of prayer.
In his book, Bishop Wright says:
“Frankly, as Jesus pointed out, there’s a lot that comes from the depths of our hearts which may be authentic but isn’t very pretty.”
None of that means that beautifully flowing prayers are not authentic, it simply means that authentic, from the heart prayers, don’t have to be beautifully flowing.
Think how proud we are of our children when they first pray what’s on their hearts…The Bible tells us that God feels the same way about us. (Matthew 7:11)
Peace
Jim
Monday morning at the coffee shop (Sweet Aroma in Tullahoma)
I’d like to sit here and write today. Cloudy days seem to be the days I am most productive and creative. But not to be, I have a lot to do today so I’ll clear out fairly soon.
I was reading about prayer this morning in Simply Christian, and Wright made this statement that stuck with me.
“We see through prayer a door standing open in heaven, and we are ushered into the throne room (of God).”
I like that analogy, that through prayer we are directly in God’s presence. If you spend some time thinking about the implications of that it will boggle your mind.
Peace
Jim
Many people have heard the still small voice of God calling them to ministry of some sort during a time of worship. It may have been music that stired their soul, it might have been the reading of Scripture, it could have been during a time of quiet reflection at prayer, and it could have even been the Word spoken through the preacher. Either way, many times God calls through an obedient heart to just be there with other Christians worshipping together.
Peace
Jim
When I think of worshipping God together with other Christians one of my favorite Psalms comes to mind. Psalm 150.
“Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”
With worship like that how could our mind be anywhere but on God?
Peace
Jim
Being liberated from the tangled web of life can mean becoming so involved with worship that a calm comes over us, and outside confusions are set aside. In the classic Desiderata, Max Ehrmann says:
”Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence…And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.”
James Earl Massey says, “Occasions of worship open our eyes and minds to the Author of Life and lead us beyond the noisy confusion of life.”
Peace
Jim
To worship means to have devotion, an intense love or admiration for something or someone. Worship is done to express that devotion, intense love and admiration. And worship can be a liberating thing as together with other people we offer praise and thanksgiving to God.
Worship in community helps us to feel a connection not only with God but with all that is God’s as together we humble ourselves before our Creator. And also important, worship helps us keep a peace within our soul as we express to God the joys and the longings of our heart, and thus feel the connection with God that calms our troubled breast.
Worship is complying with the wishes of God, and thereby lifts us above the fray of the hour. In other words worship can be liberating from the tangled web of life.
Peace
Jim
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