Being Prayerful

Prayerful? Am I prayerful? Do I know prayerful people? What does it mean to be prayerful?

A few years ago I purchased a book called A YEAR OF LIVING PRAYERFULLY by Jared Brock. This was the story of a Canadian (millenial) husband and wife couple who decided to explore prayer deeply and internationally and intentionally and ecumenically for one year with a goal to enrich their prayer lives. They used savings and frugal travel styles to make this happen. The couple runs a not for profit agency called Hope for the Sold, which works against the worldwide evil trend of human trafficking. Their travels taught them about many ways and reasons to pray.

A quote from the book sums up the couple’s initial plight and their “soul goal” to make prayer matter more to them.

“What do you do when prayer becomes routine? What do you do when your prayers feel like they are hitting the ceiling and going nowhere? How do you keep your prayers from getting boring? What if God is silent? What if God does the exact opposite of what you’ve just prayed?”

Those are powerful questions to consider in the midst of our distracted lives when a prayer utterance is sometimes the last thing we do before falling asleep at night. (I speak for myself.)

The point of the book was for this young couple to get in touch with God, but more than that, to be in tune with the creator and the world given us.

A quote also included in the book, was from Armin Gesswein, a Lutheran Pastor who has studied multiple aspects of prayer. He states this:

If God wants us to pray without ceasing, it is because He wants to answer without ceasing.”

Now THAT is powerful and prayerful!

The essence of all of this is captured in the first two verses of the James Montgomery hymn written in 1818.

1 Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
uttered or unexpressed;
the motion of a hidden fire
that trembles in the breast.

2 Prayer is the simplest form of speech
that infant lips can try,
prayer the sublimest strains that reach
the Majesty on high. AMEN!