Where and How to Pray

Three men were discussing the proper position and attitude for prayer. One said, "You should be on your knees with your head bowed in reverence to the Almighty."

The second man spoke up and said, "Remember that you were created in God's image. The position in which to pray is to stand up looking into the heavens into the face of God and talk to Him as a child to his father."

The third man spoke up and said, "I know nothing about those positions, but the finest praying I ever did was upside down in a well."

In our recent Advent study on prayer, we didn't look at this joke. But we did consider that to relegate prayer to emergencies is to cut yourself off from the real purpose and power of prayer. The Bible tells us that we are to "pray without ceasing." This is not possible if we are speaking of set prayers. But if prayer means also a life lived before God then everywhere we go and everything we do is a prayer as long as we realize God's presence in those times and places. And then within that life lived before God we'll have times of speaking to God and times of listening as well as times of just being aware of being in God's presence, whether we are stuck down a well or not.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor