The Importance of Prayer
After worship together on Sundays the most important activity in the Christian
life is always personal prayer. But prayer is much more than just asking God for
things for ourselves or for others, important though that is. More important any
of God’s gifts is God’s own self. Prayer is essentially resting in God and being
still before him. While it should always begin with words (e.g., the Lord’s
Prayer or a few verses from a psalm) one should become silent before God,
wait and listen, to still the clamouring thoughts that distract and divide our
attention. The aim is to focus on God, who is always present to us, though
invisibly.
This may feel like waiting in darkness but that is a good thing – it reminds us
that God is not just another object in the world that we can name and quantify
but the mysterious ground of all things, who yet comes to us in Jesus Christ.
Daily practising this form of prayer opens us to the mystery of God active in our
lives. It gives us a still point to navigate our way through the difficult waters of
life.
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