DO WE HAVE TO?                                              1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:16)

Jole started the children’s programme with prayer, then sang with the kids. Six-year-old Emmanuel squirmed in his seat when she prayed again after introducing  Aaron, the teacher. Then Aaron began and ended his talk with prayer. Emmanuel complained: “That’s four prayers! I can’t sit still that long.” If you think Emmanuel’s challenge is difficult, look at 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray continually” or always be in a spirit of prayer. Even some of us adults can find prayer to be boring. Maybe that’s because we don’t want to say or don’t understand that prayer is a conversation with our Father.

Back in the seventeenth century, Francois Fenelon wrote some words about prayer that have helped me: “Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, it’s pleasures and it’s pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them.” He continued, “Talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them… If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say.”

May we grow in our intimacy with God so that we will want to spend more time with Him. – Anne Cetas

PRAYER LINE: As you pray – read John 17 and Luke 5:6 about Jesus’ example of prayer. The Lord bless you and keep you in Jesus’ Name.

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Prayer is an intimate conversation with our God. (ODB)