TODAY'S SCRIPTURE:
"Pray without ceasing."
1 Thessalonians 5:17
TODAY'S WORD:
Why are we so deeply challenged by the Apostle Paul's instruction to make every aspect of our lives a prayer? We tend to think of praying as occasionally talking to God. But clearly the Apostle has a different idea about the nature of prayer than the one we ordinarily have.
"All our capacities—reason, speech, volition, affection, and action—must be molded by the activity of prayer. Moreover, as prayer becomes central in our lives, all that we do becomes part of prayer. As the Benedictine motto has it, laborare est orare—towork is to pray." Bruce Ellis Benson and Norman Wirzba
"We get on our knees before bed or offer a blessing at table at the appropriate times of day, and we think of these as moments of prayer and are certainly not doing them all the time," notes Paul Griffiths. "But for the Christian tradition, for the most part, this is an impoverished understanding of prayer. I agree with him that It is not wrong, it is just inadequate." In the Apostle Paul's astonishing call for unceasing prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17), Griffiths discerns a deeper understanding of the nature of prayer.
Paul sees all the good things we enjoy—talents, opportunities, and virtues; family, friends, and institutions; food, clothing, and latest technologies; indeed our very lives—as undeserved gifts from God (1 Corinthians 4:7). To be grateful for them is to acknowledge our indebtedness to and welcome a relationship with God—two
attitudes that are essential to adoration and prayer. This suggests, writes Griffiths, that to pray constantly "is to cultivate the habit of gratitude for gift in such a way that being grateful becomes, for us, an attitude that informs all we do."
Selah people' and friends developing a habit of unceasing prayer would change how we perceive, care for, and act in the world and toward others around us.
It would make us:
· More attentive to the particulars of our own and others' giftedness. Contrast how you would treasure a keepsake from your beloved with how you might neglectfully use a pushy advertiser's unwanted 'gift.' In the former case, you notice the details of the gift and lovingly guard it. Through prayer, one begins to experience other people and the good things of this world that way.
· More receptive to God. When Augustine (354-430) wondered why God, who already knows everything we need or want, tells us to petition for things in prayer, he concluded: "God wants our desire to be exercised in our prayers, so that we become able to receive what he is prepared to give." Prayer trains our love. When we do not pray, "our hearts are trammeled in the direction of ungrateful possessiveness," Griffiths notes. But through the practice of prayer, "our hearts are opened, increasingly and gradually, to the possibility of receiving the gift, which is, in the end, sanctification."
· Finally, it can make us less anxious and afraid. "Our desires, sculpted into gratitude's shape by ceaseless prayer, become attuned to the fact that the happy or blessed life is in fact being constantly offered to us by the Lord,". This allows us to see the world as it is—its sufferings and injustices and agonies, though real, are not the last word."
OUR PRAYER FOR TODAY:
"Heavenly Father, help each of us to know that unceasing prayer is a grateful attitude toward God and that under-girds all our thoughts and activities not just on Sunday. Allow each of us to know that verbal prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, petition, or intercession can become instances of a praying attitude. Open us up to pray in private as well as corporate worship…without ceasing. In Jesus' Name. Amen."
In Christ service,
Patrick
Rev Patrick Muston, Senior Pastor
Selah Christian Church
Four Oaks, NC
Selah people' and friends, click link below to view or download our worship hour from July 10, 2011:
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