This is kind of a follow up post of the last one; though, it’s not about code, it is about prayer. Prayer is communion with God, it is a way to get to know God more, not a way to get what we want.
There is something we do on the mission field to prepare our hearts for the work and to invite God to come and work among us: it’s called Prayer Walking. Prayer Walking is the action of walking around a site intended for ministry and noticing things to pray for and things to pray about. It is the action of directing every thought toward God and being brought into His presence, asking the Holy Spirit to come and work in the hearts of men.
The challenge here is to live every day with every thought geared toward prayer. Let the things you encounter and the material things in life cause you to pray specifically. We need to be prayer walkers, but more importantly, we need to be prayer livers.
The easiest way to summarize this is that everyone needs to be a Sherlock Holmes. If everyone were to observe the little things in life, the miscule details and pray, if we took captive every idle thought and directed it to God, we would know Him and His will for our lives in a whole new way.
“Make prayer a lifestyle, not an event.”
–Caleb Allen
Something should be missing from your life when you are not in prayer because you are a part of God and He is a part of you. That connection is one of inseparability. God will never stop being a part of you and you cannot ever stop being a part of God. So, when you are not praying, when you are not fellowshiping and communing with Him, something should be missing in your life. There should be a longing for God and the things of His word when we love Him and seek after Him.
Prayer is a means of getting to know God, of becoming intimate with The Maker. Its purpose is not what we often think it to be. Prayer is not a means of obtaining the blessings of God, it is a blessing of God. We have been given the honor to stand before the glory of the Creator and speak with Him as to a friend. Yet, sadly in this world, prayer is seen as an obligation, not a privilege.
We should be living lives that direct every sense toward heaven. Do we thank God for the capability to even perform simple actions like typing out a blog post? Or being able to see a sunset, or hear a waterfall? We should praise Him for every thing in life, for all things were made by Him and for His glory.
Are we simply going along to get along? Or are we radically in love with God. Do we long for His company? Do we feel the loss of His presence when we are not actively seeking Him and offering up prayer to Him?
Are we just living? Or are prayer living.
As always, thanks for reading.
–the anonymous novelist