Corrie Ten Boom once wrote the following about prayer: “The wonderful thing about praying, is that you leave a world of not being able to do something, and enter God’s realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible. Nothing is too great for His almighty power. Nothing is too small for His love.”
Call me old fashioned if you like, but I’m in the age bracket where I could say: done it, been there, bought the tee-shirt but have come to the conclusion that prayer is the most important part of my everyday life. The most important start to a day. No matter if what lies ahead looks busier than normal, I always take time to start the day right. If I don’t get the opportunity to pray in the morning then experience shows my day won’t go as planned. There is a definite peace when you bring and commit the whole day to God. He knows us better than we know ourselves and sees the way before us. Hymn writers must also have had the same thoughts about prayer when they wrote hymns like What a friend we have in Jesus.
Mind you, going back to the Bible we discover the disciples were concerned about prayer so much so that they went to Jesus and asked, Lord teach us to pray. As a result, Jesus taught them the most beautiful prayer, a prayer without complications. Prayer isn’t a competition to see who can use the most in flowery words.
As a youngster my brother and I were taken along regularly to the weekly church prayer meeting and boy was that an education. A complete hour of audible prayers of different lengths by some of the elders and members who were attended. Mind you, there were two lovely people who really stood out to me and they took part in every meeting. One dear brother’s prayers were so complicated, were so long and so difficult to understand. The other person, when he began to pray, his prayers were so simple, so meaningful and you knew they were from the heart.
I once won an award in my day job which meant a trip to London with my wife, to be presented with it by the Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace. Before we went to the Palace a lot of correspondence went back and forth from the Palace mainly about dress code. After all we were going to the home of the Royal Family.
With prayer we come into the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and we are allowed to call Him Our Father!
Is prayer important then? You’d better believe it.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:6-7: “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”
God is aware what makes us tick so it is important to start the day right!
Enjoy your day!
Tom Bonnar
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