Thought for the Day – Friday 25th September
‘He was praying in a certain place, and
after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to
pray, as John taught his disciples”.’ (Luke 11: 1)
Yes, it is
Friday again!
The story is
told of a vicar whose cat got stuck up a tree. In an attempt to rescue it he
climbed a ladder and attached one end of a rope to the trunk and the other to
the tow bar of his car. Then as he was gently driving forward the rope snapped
and the cat was catapulted (excuse the pun!) into the sky! It was heard of no
more until a few weeks later the vicar is out on a pastoral visit to a young
mum and her son Johnny. There lying on the rug in front of the fire was the
vicar’s cat so quite innocently the vicar asked them where they had got their
lovely cat. In reply the mum said that the vicar would never believe it, but
Johnny had been nagging her for months to get a cat and in a moment of
exasperation as she had been hanging out the washing she told him the only
thing to do was pray. She said they had knelt down, put their hands together
and then looked heavenward and prayed saying ‘Dear Jesus, please send us a
pussy cat!’ …and to their astonishment the pussy cat had arrived in an instant!
I am sure not
all prayers are answered so instantly but that certainly shouldn’t stop us
praying!
Prayer is so
important for us as Christians.
Isn’t it
interesting though in our text that is when having first seen Jesus pray, that his
disciples then want to be taught how to pray for themselves, and, of course,
the result of that teaching is what we now called the Lord’s Prayer, used by so
many worldwide. This always has me thinking though is this really a response to
how to pray or is it more a response which tells them what to say when they pray.
I also wonder about Jesus being in that ‘certain place’ to pray, does that then
mean that praying should only be in a ‘certain place’.
I have to say,
for me prayer is so important and I don’t know about you but I don’t feel I
have to be restricted to certain words or certain places to speak to God. I
feel we should be able to speak to God just as we would speak to any other
friend and speak as freely as we would wish and wherever we would wish.
I do love times
of solitude when there is peace and quiet – maybe on a beach or a hill top –
for these are times when in prayer you can sense God close at hand, you can almost hear his voice speak to you,
feel him nudging your thoughts or indeed just sit and wallow in his presence.
However, I also love those times when I am amid noise – maybe on a busy train
when you can just pop your earphones into your phone and perhaps listen to a
prayer app and listen for God speaking amongst the buzz. Even on busy streets
you can pray and God may even allow you to catch glimpses of him in the folk
around you as they pass you by on their way to or from work as they dwell on
the day that is to come or the day just gone.
And please
don’t ever feel ashamed at people seeing you pray either, for did not Jesus
allow his disciples to see him at prayer and they must have liked what they saw
because they wanted to experience it too – that’s why they asked ‘teach us to
pray’!
I think
sometimes the prayer we let others see can be so formal, so prescribed, so
lacking in joy that prayer then becomes unattractive to them and this is
certainly not what Jesus intended prayer to be or how he taught his disciples.
Jesus wants us
to pray freely to God whenever we feel the need to pray, he wants us not to get
hung up on the words we use but just pray from our hearts, he wants us to pray
wherever we may be, and he wants us to pray with boldness, with exuberance,
with laughter and with tears that we might encourage others to want to learn to
pray too and we pray that it may be so..
Prayer
Loving Lord,
Teach us to
pray that we might awaken to the wonder of your presence, that we might feel
gratitude for your gift of life today, that we might discover your kingdom as
revealed in our sisters and brothers, that we might find safety beneath the
shelter of your wings. Lord, teach us to pray that we might forgive those who
have wronged us, that we might trust your perfect plans and not replace them
with our own, that we might love you with our whole hearts and love our neighbours
as ourselves. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Friday Fun
Time:
Okay, here are
your things to think about for today!
1. Take the
letters of PRAYER and think of one person or thing for each letter for which to
pray.
2. Ever made a
strange prayer request to God?
3. Where do you
feel closest to God when praying?
4. What’s the
most unusual place you have ever prayed?
5. Now just for
fun, take the letters of PRAYER and imagine you had to pray for the weirdest,
silliest,
craziest or most ludicrous of things ever
what would you choose for each letter?
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