Prayer is a way of life…
One teaching central to Christs ministry and so to the Church is all too often forgotten. That is Jesus’ news that “the last shall be first and the first last”. He spoke of our call to follow Him as a call to be the servant of all mankind yet many devout Christians are obsessed with power. I would think that this is a contradiction…no?
Another teaching to note is that which pleads with us not to praise God as the pharisees did. Shouting psalms on the street corners just to be known as ‘holy’. Thinking of who might see them instead of giving themselves to God in prayer. Jesus told us that it is by serving the poor and the weak that we praise God. It is by our actions, not our words that we live as Christians. Jesus constantly referred to the pharisees as hypocrites who spoke meaningless words while living a life turned in on themselves. This is not how we should live.
Sometimes it’s very easy to confine our lives as Christians to the Churches on Sundays or our rooms before bed. What is more difficult is living our daily lives with the question which can never be overused: ‘What would Jesus do?’. In my opinion the question more fitting is ‘What would Jesus have me do?’. As I mentioned before we are members of the only religion which claims that its God led by example. Yet on certain occasions this isn’t so straightforward as checking a file and copying Him. Faced with modern questions and choices we must be prepared to fit Christs teachings into place. This, I suppose, is where the Church comes in. If you’re not sure as to how such teachings could be adopted to fit the problem you can be sure the Church has examined it in advance.
It can be tiring to live as a Christian…always trying to help with no thanks….but this is what we’ve signed up for. Hard as it may seem at times we are reassured that our thanks is forthcoming…or the opposite I suppose. Prayer is a way of communicating with God, getting closer to God. The true way to do this is to live as He asked and so prayer is not a few words spoken in the right order or the right hand gestures while kneeling. Prayer is a way of life……….so live it!
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 and is filed under Prayer & the Christian life.
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