I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do…
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills wound soon be due…
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer
And jumped up off my knees…
My Christian duty now was done
My soul could be at ease…
All day long I had no time
To spend a word of cheer…
No time to speak of Christ to friends
They’d laugh at me I feared…
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry.
No time to give to sols in need
But at last it was time,
The time to die…
I went before the Lord,
I came and stood
With downcast eyes…
For in His hands God held a book;
It was the book of life…
God looked into His book
And said, “Your name I cannot find…
I once was going to write it down…
But never found the time.”
- Adapted –
Prayer is the most essential practice of our faith. It is the act foremost to connect with the Almighty God. Anyone professing his belief in God but does not pray betrays the faith.
Prayer is an act of the will. It is not a matter of finding the time to pray but whether do you want to pray. To find ourselves too busy to pray stems from our limited notion that prayer has to take too much time and effort. We may find ourselves in quandary thinking about the seemingly sophisticated ways of praying taught to us by the church. Yet we miss the whole idea that God hears even the simplest prayer, prayed in earnest. Thus, time is not the essence of prayer, it is faith.
We who are consumed in the bonfires of the vanities see time as a tyrant. We constantly watch time ticking-away. We count the minutes, hours, days, months and years as we strive towards an unending quest for what this world can offer. We are deceived by the belief that the wisest investments are those in stocks, bank notes and real estate that grow overtime. Yet because of these ambitions, we are constantly frightened by the fact that we have so little control over our own lives. Lest it too late, we shall find ourselves possessed by those we possess.
For God however time is but a tiny drop of vapor that appears in an instant and then gone. The true and lasting investments are those invested in times of prayer and contemplation. And the real wealth is in our faith. The times of prayer are treasured opportunity to experience the unique and rich relationship that anyone shares with God. Prayer brings in enlightenment in times of confusion and wisdom that carries us through the most difficult moments.
When we do our obligation to pray, we do so out of faith and love for God. It is when we feel uninspired; when we find it too tiring or when we are loosing faith that we should pray even more. These are the perfect time to tell God what’s in our heart. Oftentimes, we don’t even need to voice out our prayers especially when we are lost for words. It is in these time when we let our spirit soar to meet the Divine and express the yearnings of our heart.
There is nothing complicated about prayer only if we acknowledge that it is the most natural thing to do; an act necessary to our temporal existence and essential to our passage to eternal life.
Hence, even in the midst of our busy life, anytime should be prayer time. It has to be integrated in our lifestyle. God gave us time, we should offer it back to Him.
I had too much to do…
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills wound soon be due…
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer
And jumped up off my knees…
My Christian duty now was done
My soul could be at ease…
All day long I had no time
To spend a word of cheer…
No time to speak of Christ to friends
They’d laugh at me I feared…
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry.
No time to give to sols in need
But at last it was time,
The time to die…
I went before the Lord,
I came and stood
With downcast eyes…
For in His hands God held a book;
It was the book of life…
God looked into His book
And said, “Your name I cannot find…
I once was going to write it down…
But never found the time.”
- Adapted –
Prayer is the most essential practice of our faith. It is the act foremost to connect with the Almighty God. Anyone professing his belief in God but does not pray betrays the faith.
Prayer is an act of the will. It is not a matter of finding the time to pray but whether do you want to pray. To find ourselves too busy to pray stems from our limited notion that prayer has to take too much time and effort. We may find ourselves in quandary thinking about the seemingly sophisticated ways of praying taught to us by the church. Yet we miss the whole idea that God hears even the simplest prayer, prayed in earnest. Thus, time is not the essence of prayer, it is faith.
We who are consumed in the bonfires of the vanities see time as a tyrant. We constantly watch time ticking-away. We count the minutes, hours, days, months and years as we strive towards an unending quest for what this world can offer. We are deceived by the belief that the wisest investments are those in stocks, bank notes and real estate that grow overtime. Yet because of these ambitions, we are constantly frightened by the fact that we have so little control over our own lives. Lest it too late, we shall find ourselves possessed by those we possess.
For God however time is but a tiny drop of vapor that appears in an instant and then gone. The true and lasting investments are those invested in times of prayer and contemplation. And the real wealth is in our faith. The times of prayer are treasured opportunity to experience the unique and rich relationship that anyone shares with God. Prayer brings in enlightenment in times of confusion and wisdom that carries us through the most difficult moments.
When we do our obligation to pray, we do so out of faith and love for God. It is when we feel uninspired; when we find it too tiring or when we are loosing faith that we should pray even more. These are the perfect time to tell God what’s in our heart. Oftentimes, we don’t even need to voice out our prayers especially when we are lost for words. It is in these time when we let our spirit soar to meet the Divine and express the yearnings of our heart.
There is nothing complicated about prayer only if we acknowledge that it is the most natural thing to do; an act necessary to our temporal existence and essential to our passage to eternal life.
Hence, even in the midst of our busy life, anytime should be prayer time. It has to be integrated in our lifestyle. God gave us time, we should offer it back to Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment