Longing to Pray – Day 21 “In this matter of petitioning God by specific names, I confess a simple faith, but one that is significant enough to me that I dare to recommend it to you. As I go about each day, numbers of persons come to mind. Some names appear logically – I see …
Longing to Pray – Day 20 “When the psalmist repents, he isn’t content to make a blanket request for forgiveness. Rahter, he uses three different words for sin and three specific words for the kind of action he wants taken to his sins (“Blot out my transgressions./Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,/and cleanse me from …
Longing to Pray – Day 19 “A lazy relationship will be taken over by generalities. A great relationship is marked by the specific. You’ve been told that the good is the enemy of the best and that the pretty is the enemy of the beautiful. Let me add that the general is the enemy of …
Longing to Pray – Day 18 “The secret of exuberance is involvement. If we are to enjoy exuberance, we have to engage ourselves. The more nearly complete the engagement, the greater the level of fulfillment and of exuberance. And here’s the rub for most of us religious folk. We engage in too much of our …
Longing to Pray – Day 17 Writing about the author of Psalm 96, “All of his vocabulary seems stunted and insufficient for the wonder he feels, so he yearns for a new way to declare the glory of God. He wants much more than new words, a fresh melody, or a different set of musical …
Longing to Pray – Day 16 “So is there a “right” time for prayer? The psalmists would endorse morning, noon, night, any hour, every hour. Saints in the Christian tradition would reinforce the idea that any time is an appropriate time for prayer; and most of them would also emphasize the importance of prayer early …
Longing to Pray – Day 15 “any place can become sacred space. The secret is not location, but the attitude of the heart. Because of our psychological makeup, we do well to establish some given spot, whether in our home, our church, or a walking path. It’s important also that we mark that place by …
Longing to Pray – Day 14 “So is a church – to move the Old Testament writer into our world – the best place to pray? In truth, there is something special about a church as a place to pray. Quite simply, when a building or a place is dedicated to a particular purpose, it …
Longing to Pray – Day 13 “Thinking that our posture wins favor with God or that it ensures an answer to prayer reduces prayer to magic; however, if we refuse to place ourselves under some particular, reasonable physical discipline, our pride can separate us from God.” Dr. Ellsworth Kalas, “Longing to Pray” Prayer prompt (also …
Longing to Pray – Day 12 Presumptuous Friendship: part 2 “The more we experience of the goodness of God, the more we are in danger of the ingratitude that neglects the source of that goodness. In any friendship, human or divine, we need to pause at frequent intervals and ask ourselves if we have allowed …