The Power of Prayer

by Clarice Bowman and George Harper

Chapter 4

A Rainbow of Moods in Prayer

Prayer consists, not in the things you get, but in what you become.

The great prayers of the Bible range through different moods. So do prayers that have come down to us from illuminated spirits of the church through the ages. A "rainbow" of prayer moods belongs in every person's daily experience. These moods are: Adoration; Thanksgiving; Confession; Petition; Intercession; Dedication; and Closing, or Ascription in the name of Christ. The prayer of Contemplation, or the Unitive Way, may be achieved by those who are spiritually sensitive and who have paid the price of all climbers to the mountaintop: that of discipline.

Beginners in prayer are prone to let petition overshadow the other moods. To the extent that selfish concerns dominate prayers, they dominate life. One of the evidences of spiritual growth is an increasing tendency towards the unselfish prayer moods of adoration, thanksgiving, and intercession. Our prayers are a test, to reveal whether we are becoming more God-centered and others-centered and less self-centered.

Is there an exact sequence that should be followed for these moods in prayer? No. To follow routine would be insincere. Each must speak forth to his God the deepest impulses of his inmost self. Would it not be artificial if what was uppermost on your heart had to wait until you had methodically checked off other items on your prayer agenda? The listing above suggests a sequence commonly found in group worship. But the individual finds his own natural order.

Preparing the Heart for Prayer

A veteran tells of a crisis at the front when he "really prayed." A mother tells of the illness of a loved one, when she "really prayed." What do they mean?

First, their own act of prayer was whole-hearted. In their anguish, doubts were swept away. They concentrated all their powers upon finding God. Here was no lazy wool-gathering, no shallow self-centeredness.

Second, they will testify that, even though the specific answer they requested may not have come, they felt a response.

Crisis prayers are real. The tragedy is that the same earnestness does not carry over into ordinary times. Can you determine now, to make your prayers of the everyday, as earnest as those from a life-raft?

Instead of wandering vaguely in your prayers from one idea to another, decide beforehand just what moods your prayer will take. Then put all of you back of this prayer act. If you say, "My prayer now will be a thanks-giving," recount to yourself your blessings, and mean your gratitude from the depths of your heart. If you say, "I must now confess," think specifically of your sins; concentrate on God's loving forgiving spirit; purpose that with His help you will not commit those sins again. Pray each time as if this were the last prayer you might ever pray this side of eternity.

Prepare to listen. All of us would do well to echo the spiritual, "I'll be somewhere listening for my name." The purpose of prayer is not merely to find expression for what we want to say, but through two-way conversation (which involves listening on our part) to hear the divine call. The habit of humble, God-absorbed listening is the best known remedy for self-love. Prayer at its highest is preparation of ourselves to let Him flow through us and out over the world in endless benediction.

Another condition we must fulfill is that of absolute confidence in God. He has taken care of the past. He will take care of the future. Having done our best, we can leave the rest with Him. Jesus warned against the sin of being over-anxious. Read Matthew 6:19-34 and you will feel the magnificent sweep of Jesus' confidence in God. Hear, too, His stinging condemnation of our trust in things.

Matthew 6:19 "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: {20} But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: {21} For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. {22} The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. {23} But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! {24} No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. {25} Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? {26} Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? {27} Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? {28} And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: {29} And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. {30} Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? {31} Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? {32} (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. {33} But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. {34} Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." It is as if Jesus were saying, "O little man, quit worrying about things you cannot control." This does not mean that we would not take all our concerns, particularly about the evils of the world, to God in Prayer. But, having aligned our wills with His and dedicated our powers, we must not then dissipate them by lack of trust, or cloud our efficiency by worry. Bishop Quayle told of lying awake anxiously one night until as last he seemed to hear God say, "Now, William, relax and go to sleep; I'll sit up the rest of the night." When you drop a seed into the ground you trust that it will grow according to God's laws. The Lord of the harvest is the Lord of your life; trust Him.

Adoration

"Set the Lord before you," said the Psalmist (psa. 16:18). To do so may involve a definite act of mind and will. For, crowding before you are probably hundreds of other ideas, concerns, desires, duties. To shut the door upon these, and open the door to God is your first step.

Prayer begins in consciousness of God: "Our Father ... Which art in heaven ..." "Hallowed be Thy name ..." (Matt. 6:9) "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." (Psa. 90:17) "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." (Psa. 103:1) "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations." (Psa. 90:1)

The ancient Hebrews so revered the name Jahweh that they dared not pronounce aloud the vowel sounds. Think of some aspect of God such as His holiness, His all-encompassing, unfailing love; or perhaps let your thoughts be guided by some gracious picture or promise Jesus gave. "I am the Light of the world." (John 8:12) Let the wonder of it fill your heart ... as if you were viewing a magnificent sunrise for the first time. Give yourself utterly to the experience. Let yourself be "carried away" into the thought of God.

The twenty-third Psalm does not ask something from God. It meditates about God and His ways. Read, with your heart vibrating in answering adoration: Psalms 1, 8, 19, 27, 139. Or sing in your mind such hymns as: "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past"; "The Spacious Firmament on High"; "Holy, Holy, Holy"; "God of Grace and God of Glory"; "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee." Adoration means "loving God back." In adoration, says Muriel Lester, "we enjoy God."

A little girl went into the study of her uncle who was at work. She stood by his side a few minutes. Finally, he asked kindly, "What did you come for, Mary?" "Nothing," she replied, "just to be with you."

A French peasant had a custom of coming into the church and sitting for a long time after his day's toil. A priest asked him what he prayed about. He answered, "O, I just look up at Him and He looks down at me." As one put it, "In adoration we hold ourselves toward God as one holds cold hands to a fire."

Brother Lawrence was able, after patient practice, to say, "As for my set hours of prayer, sometimes I consider myself a stone before a carver, whereof he is to make a statue; presenting myself thus before God, I desire Him to form His perfect image in my soul and make me entirely like Himself."

A would-be follower observed St. Francis in an all-night prayer-vigil, and found that he spent the entire night in prayer of adoration, breathing, "My Lord and my God."

Thanksgiving

The step from adoration to thanksgiving is short. "In everything give thanks" (I Thessalonians 5:18). Once there was an ugly little man, abused and miserably persecuted for his energetic preaching and practicing of a truth in which he firmly believed. Publicly ridiculed, flogged, thrown into prison, still this staunch little man could bravely, joyously say to his fellow Christians, "In everything give thanks." Paul was reminding us that what matters most is not what happens to us, but how we take it. Something significant happens to us when, under the stress of distracting and discouraging circumstances, we can open our eyes and our hearts to God's goodness, and give thanks.

Let us pray. O God, forgive me when I go about with my eyes to the ground, seeking my heaven in the dust. Give my spirit wings of gratitude to soar higher than my complaining self to Thee, in Thine unending love and mercy to me. Make me aware of Thee, My God - and thankful.

Yet, despite all we have to be thankful for, gratitude is not always spontaneous in us. All the more reason, then, why we should keep a place for it in our prayers. Whatever our mood, whether we feel thankful at the moment or not, the act of praying in consciousness of God's goodness may open our dull hearts. Thanksgiving should become a part of the "set" of our spirits toward God. "Count your blessings" and you may be quickened into a new aliveness.

Grace at table reminds us of God's good gifts, and of that Supper when Jesus bade His disciples, "This do in remembrance of Me." (1 Cor. 11:24) The food, of which we are about to partake imparts strength for His work.

When you use a form of thanksgiving from prepared materials, consider each new idea until it becomes your thanksgiving. Think of new experiences, new realizations that have come to you. Let the little things of life have place in your prayers. See all of life in the framework of the "Eternal Goodness."

"I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air,
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care."
John Greenleaf Whittier

Growth takes place in our prayers of thanksgiving, as in other phases of our prayer experience. At first, we may have stopped with gratitude for material things. Venturing deeper, we grow able to thank Him for sadness, for sorrows, for disappointments which may have helped us grow. Have we reached the point where we can thank God for answering our prayers in His own way?

The use we make of our gifts bespeaks our thanksgiving more than our words. Thanksgiving is thanks-living. We need not fear to use God's gifts to the fullest when thankfulness is in our hearts.

Sometimes, to accept a gift from God means that we have to turn out of our hearts something that is blocking the way.

We take God's gifts and offer them back, to be of use to Him as He wills. Thus consecrated, they become more sacred to us. Our lives become a holy stewardship. For example, to thank God for a happy and comfortable home is not enough. Are we willing to undergo our part of the sacrifices involved in making that home loving, and in devoting that home to His service?

Thanksgiving brings us close to intercession for others. We covet that others may have the good gifts we enjoy. Prayer for them becomes inspiration to action.

Confession

Contemplation of God in His goodness brings a sense of our own unworthiness. Awareness of what He has done for us brings a keen sense of how little we have done for Him.

One spiritual leader suggests that, in addition to our regular periods of prayer daily, we set aside at least a half-hour each week for rigid self-examination and confession, when unhurriedly we may look at ourselves "as if we were someone else" and judge ourselves by the Christian ideal.

God makes His own examination. He may uncover some habit that we ourselves might prefer not to call a sin. We list our sins as we feel ourselves judged by Him. We cannot confess what we only half-acknowledge to ourselves. But in our prayer of confession, we should neither exaggerate nor minimize. The devil has a way of withdrawing us from the real evils into preoccupation with small things.

There are our personal sins or "trespasses": laziness, irritation, jealousy, desire to be in the spotlight, pettiness, compromise, discouragement. There are also the "soiling" experiences of so much contact with evil in the day's living.

In addition, there are the sins of the world. The world's sin is our sin. We cannot turn aside from it as too big for us. Each individual shares responsibility. He cannot escape it. The world's pain must be his own pain. If enough people were sorry enough about the ills in the world today, they could make a difference.

Sins of omission should be confessed, as well as sins of commission. "I have done those things I ought not to have done, and have left undone those things I ought to have done." Specifically, what have we done that we ought not to have done, and to whom? Specifically, what have we left undone that we ought to have done? When was that? What can we do about it?

In confession, there is no need to narrate to God at great length what He knows already. In penitence, we cast our burdens at the foot of the cross. Brooding over sins merely brings remorse and deepens them in our minds. To repent is not to repine.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts,
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting."
Psalm 139:23-24

At times, when our penitence is especially deep, we feel unworthy to come into God's presence, to ask forgiveness. God knows. He will accept us as we are.

To accept God's forgiveness is an active experience. "As far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." (Psa. 103:12) "Though thy sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow." (Isa. 1:18) Come in faith ... go in the same faith. The prophets, Jesus, and the apostles all declared God's cleaning love. "Unto seventy times seven" (Matt. 18:22) is His forgiveness.

Experiencing forgiveness does not necessarily mean escaping from the consequences of our acts, or even from the habit-patterns that may have been given a good start within ourselves. But through forgiveness, we are buoyed with new courage and morale. We can watch those dangerous pitfalls more carefully.

You may be perplexed as to what to do about righting the wrongs you have committed. Accept God's leading. You may feel that some word should be spoken, or some act of restitution made. No general rule can be given as to steps after forgiveness. Each situation and each individual differs. Let God lead.

But of each, a definite act of will is expected: to renounce with honesty and strength that particular sin or shortcoming for good, for God. Otherwise, confession becomes a habit of indulgence. Sometimes acceptance of God's forgiveness involves our forgiving others. "Forgive us ... as we forgive." (Matt. 6:12)

Petition

God knows us through and through. We need not fear nor hesitate to talk with Him about any desire of our hearts. But how His heart must at times yearn over us when we act like "spiritual cry-babies" pleading for things, instead of taking His spirit into our hearts!

For what should we ask? We can scarcely expect God to grant desires that are wrong. A prayer in Jesus' name ("in His spirit") means that we will not ask for evil to happen to anyone else or for good to come to us at the expense of others. We will not ask for easy lives, but for strength and wisdom to meet our tasks. We even pray for courage to take on hard or unpleasant work. Prayer for basic physical and material needs may be made "in His name", if our motive is to serve God more fully through them. But we must be willing, if need be, to go on serving without them! In short, our prayer may be for whatever seems appropriate to the nature of God as Jesus pictured Him.

Christian petition is always prefaced by "if": if it be His will. Can we admit that, if something is not according to His will, we will gladly go without it? Can we, in the words of a young person, "make His will our wish"?

How are our petitions dealt with? Sometimes it seems as if God is strangely silent. We have tried sincerely to offer our prayer in Jesus' spirit; and we have sought to find His will. Nothing seems to be happening. Perhaps the "answer" is coming in ways we have not yet learned to understand. Through some train of circumstances, He may be revealing the way to take. He may have different plans for us. Sometimes after long delay, answering thoughts flash into our minds.

That period of preparation was necessary and therefore not wasted. Sometimes we are given that for which we pray, but in a different form. Many times there is a definite "No". In childlike trust, we can relax upon His goodness, knowing that He knows our needs and has our interests at heart more deeply than does the most loving parent. We rejoice, even in a negative response, for "we crave a God we can worship, not one we can coerce."

There is a "character test" to prayers of petition, as there is to prayers of confession. Are we ready to receive that for which we ask? Do we honestly expect something to happen? Few of us pray as if we expected to receive, nor do we live as if we did. We pray that our youth fellowship may be a spiritual force in the community life and the nation, and that other youth may want to commit themselves more fully to Christ. But if a host of youth lived up to the condition of that prayer - what a difference it might make! Are the youth, who would thus pray, willing to make a public witness of their faith?

If we ask God for a Christian world where wars will be outlawed forever, we ought to believe we will receive it! Is not such a world in line with what we understand of God's own nature? Hatred and prejudice and destruction are foreign to the way of life Jesus taught. Prayer for a peaceful world, then, should be easy. But it is too easy, if we overlook the heart of the matter: our prayer must be our life!

Many of us are too much like St. Augustine when he prayed, "O God, make me over - but not yet," or like those who subconsciously add under their breath, "Thy kingdom come" - "but not now."

If we ask for a Christian world order by devoting every minute of our time, every bit of our talent and energy, and every penny of our money to living out God's way, then we shall receive it. That is not easy! It is not even halfway easy. But it is not impossible. "Dreams are they - but they are God's dreams." (Thomas Curtis Clark)

Intercession

What we ask in deepest desire for ourselves, should we not also ask for others? Petition and intercession are close, particularly when both are God-centered at heart. In a completely unselfish prayer, our own deepest petition is for another's good. The Lord's prayer is for "us," not "me" alone or "they" alone.

Yet many are perplexed about intercessory prayer. Is it reasonable to suppose that God can (or will) influence persons at a distance in response to our prayer, except through stirring us to do something for them? And if God should answer our prayer for others, would it not be forcing our will upon them and taking away their freedom?

Jesus, however, prayed for others as naturally as He prayed for Himself. In His long prayer near the end of His ministry, His great heart overflowed, in intercession for those He was leaving. To the Christian, prayer for others is not only right but essential - in fact, natural and inevitable, the more we grow in our understanding of God, of others, and of ourselves.

Intercession may be defined as "communion with God about others," seeking to learn His will for them, and to cooperate therewith.

Can intercessory prayer accomplish some of the claims made for it?

We may be on the fringes of spiritual laws whose workings have not yet been fully apprehended. A man can speak into a microphone and be heard thousands of miles away before he is heard in the back of the room in which he is speaking. Several messages can travel over telephone wires at the same time. Surely divine and human intercommunication can take place. The workings of people's sub-conscious minds have not yet been explored fully. In recent experiments in extra-sensory perception, findings indicated that telepathy took place more readily between persons who were closely knit by ties of love or relationship.

"We are probably linked to each other in mysterious ways besides the more obvious outward bonds of union. We do not yet know clearly how this is so; but it is a fact beyond dispute that mind can influence mind in ways beyond comprehension. And if we can influence other minds by these deep and mysterious means, it is not very difficult to believe that The Mind which is in vital touch with all minds, and from Whom they derive their very existence, can influence us all." Ronald Sinclair

Genuine intercessory prayer also has a "character test": it demands that we offer ourselves so wholly to God as to renounce our own thoughts and feelings about others. We take His into our hearts instead, holding them there until they color our attitudes, dispel our prejudices, and nerve us to unselfish action!

We have prayed for ourselves and been answered. We have prayed for our brothers and been answered. Now dare we pray for the whole brotherhood of man? Sometimes we are tempted to hold our prayers to the range of what we consider possibility. We dare not lift our eyes and imaginations to far horizons, and to pray seemingly impossible prayers. Yet Paul prayed, as if he thought there were no limitations on the power of God's love! Read Ephesians 3:14-21.

Ephesians 3:14: For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, {15} Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, {16} That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; {17} That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, {18} May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; {19} And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. {20} Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, {21} Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

The New Testament tells of the bedridden man whose friends were so eager for his healing that they lowered him through the roof. "And Jesus, seeing their faith ..." (Matt. 9:2) Can our faith expressed through intercession be the means of releasing further spiritual energies for others?

We do not know how, but prayers seem to open up channels between God and man, and between man and man. Testimonies have multiplied from persons who seemed to feel that they were being prayed for.

How can we learn to pray intercessory prayers? For those who do not find it easy to think of others, let them start with themselves and ask also for others. Do you find it difficult to resist temptations? Then pray for all who may be tempted in the same way. Do you face sorrow? Turn abruptly from self-pity and remember more difficult sorrows others may face. Does joy sing in your heart? Think of others who face life with a smile.

The long prayer of Jesus suggests a "pattern":

First, He prays for his nearest friends, with a warm intimacy of spirit that betokens deep friendship and understanding. But watch! He does not ask that they be given earthly security or ease, but that they may be kept from evil ... "safe with me as here on earth, and safe in Thee."

Then, as a fan spreads out from its base, His prayer widens step by step. He prays for those whose lives will be touched by the deeds and words of those there present. Then His prayer stretches to include all His loved ones of all space, all time.

Love must be back of our intercession, as it was back of His. We may start with those we love most. Then we include all those near to the heart of Christ.

Into our prayer will come the thought of persons working in far-away places for God. With our financial support should go our loving prayers and our personal interest. Alongside them we see countless hosts of other workmen for God, facing difficulties unimaginable to us.

"Away in foreign fields, they wondered how
Their simple word had power.
At home, some Christians, two or three had met
To pray an hour.
We are always wondering, wondering how,
Because we do - not see
Someone - perhaps unknown and far away -
on bended knee."
- Laubach

Prayer is especially needed for those representatives of governments responsible for the destinies of peoples all over the earth. Do we stop for ten seconds, while reading the newspaper or hearing radio newscasts, to pray for a person or group who is likely to affect world affairs?

Muriel Lester suggests praying for persons we pass on busses or crowded streets. They may be strangers, yet they are God's children. Our sense of kinship grows as we pray silently, "God help you - you look as though you are facing a problem!'; or, "Thank God," if the face seems glad.

The more vividly we can picture peoples in other lands as fellow human beings (and in our own land too!), the more we learn about their customs, their music, their worship, their interests, the more fully we can pray for and with them. Folk games and songs, folk stories and other lore can enhance our prayers.

The difficult question comes, "Can I pray genuinely for someone I dislike?" No, not until there is true forgiveness in your heart, or willingness to be led of God into fellowship with that person. Try to imagine Jesus in your place. Hear Him praying, "Father, forgive them." (Luke 23:34) He had no enemies! Concentrate upon the worst enemy you know. True, you may feel a sense of righteous indignation that this person or group is acting from selfishness or greed and causing suffering to others. But the energy of love demands that you pray that he may be turned away from these evil ways. You do not meekly condone injustice in our prayers. You work actively towards casting down from positions of power such persons or groups, through your voting and in other ways.

But always in your prayers, you see persons as persons. Think what it might mean to the world if they became followers of the Christ. Have you faith to believe that with God all things are possible? Above all, oust hatred from your own outlook and motives. Unless you do, it may propel your actions in wrong directions. Only when in deep humility, we face our weaknesses, can we become instruments of reconciliation.

"Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury - pardon. Where there is doubt - faith. Where there is despair - hope. Where there is darkness - light. Where there is sadness - joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving, that we receive. It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned. It is in dying, that we are born to eternal life." St. Francis of Assisi

Dedication, Submission to God's Will, Commitment to Service

The final act of prayer is the yielding up of ourselves to God. All the other moods of prayer are incomplete without this.

Would you believe that a boy is sincere who tells a girl he loves her and then becomes engaged to another girl? Do you believe a person's prayer is sincere if he tells God he is grateful for blessings and earnestly seeks His light, and then fritters away his time on non-essentials of a selfish nature?

The act of dedication releases us from a feeling of inferiority into the glorious knowledge that God has created us for Himself, and that we - even we, with all our weaknesses and failures - can have a part in fulfilling His will here on earth. All our work ahead is haloed with this sense of mission.

Details we must do each day do not bother us. We remember that Jesus lived the greater part of His life amidst the details of carpenter work, village gossip, preparation of meals, sleeping, walking, talking with neighbors. Of that stuff a kingdom of love can be built! It became a reality first in His life, then in His teachings!

We may not always be able to see clearly the steps to take, following our commitment. Sometimes there is no sense of "green light" for a while. Yet usually the immediate step just ahead is clear. By taking that, a subsequent step appears and then another. Dedication is not one act, so much as a "set" of the spirit in seeking to know and to follow God's will - all the way.

Closing

Beautiful, and of profound meaning, is the custom of closing a prayer "in Jesus' name," or "in the name and spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ." As has been seen, such phrases must square with our inmost motives. We have not prayed, in the real sense, until we have prayed in His name.

As Jesus went forth to let His life be used by God, so our prayers in His name imply our willingness to serve.

Contemplation

Prayer at its highest level becomes "unitive" - "communion with God." In utter quietness we expose ourselves to God, as the lake bares itself to the reflection of the stars.

Our purpose in contemplation has been cleansed of all self-seeking. No longer are we preoccupied with our own concerns. Our one object is to achieve unity with Him, the Maker of our Being. Probably our prayer has gone beyond words, beyond music, beyond conscious thought. All else has been blotted out in a "cloud of the unknowing." There is often a sense, not so much of praying, as of being prayed through.

Whereas in meditation, you may have to force yourself to concentrate mentally, to hold your thoughts "in loving attention to God," in contemplation you are on a higher level and "wandering thoughts have no more influence over your contemplation than a flight of birds over a plowed field." In contemplation the mind is empty of self, empty of all things save God. Your prayer is now reduced to its simplest form: waiting upon God.

How long should one remain in contemplation? There is no answer. Some, are capable of longer periods than others. Time is not the question, but the reality of the experience. There may not be any direct result "no prophet ecstasy, no sudden rending of the veil of clay." Yet, upon going about other duties later, you are likely to find a new light shed upon your way, a new grace in your soul. Some truth may have been made clear. Wherever your deepest need was, there a Divine Hand has touched -if for healing, or consolation, or courage, or strength.

* * *

From Japan:

Now let me live
To manifest Thee, O Lord
Unto my people -
But let me hide behind Thee
Lest their eyes should rest on me.
from D. J. Fleming

O Thou, whose glory reaches to the heavens, our Peerless One, grant that as Fuji's pain-wrought crown is reflected in the muddy paddy fields near its base, we may each in his own place and in his own pattern catch a fragment of Thy likeness and all together reveal the perfection of Thy beauty.
from D. J. Fleming

Top of Page Chapter 4       Next Chapter

Matthew 6:9-15Matthew 6:9-15 With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best - as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes. "In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part.  (The Message)