I will pray for you....

I have heard many people say, “I will pray for you”. I myself have spoken those words to many. I see an instant magic in those words. Hearing it some will hold our hands and press it in affection; others wear a beautiful smile on their face; while there are still others who softly say, ‘Thank you, dear Brother.’ Nevertheless, seldom do I realise that I am making an important commitment. Moreover, worst, many times I fail to keep-up that commitment.

I have understood that taking a commitment to pray for another person is a serious one. These days, I take time to tell them, “I will pray for you.” I will not speak those words as a modern Cliché. I have also understood that prying for another person can become a heart to heart affair only when I walk deep into him and lead him into the healing presence of God. This is not possible in a fly-by-night operation!

The true magic of praying for brothers and sisters is that it will allow us to enter into their world of sorrow and joy, conflicts and agonies, loneliness and emptiness. That process will humble us, as we are the children of the same God called 'Abba'.

The feet and the light....

"For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before God

in the light of life."

(Psalm 56:13)

The Quiet Hour...

The quiet hour is the time when I kneel and see myself ... myself all alone.

It is the time I most cherish everyday. It is a time of solitude... of taking it all alone...of talking it all alone... me and me alone...the quiet hour is the time when I say the best of me and the worst of me... I speak to my Creator. It is the time I confound my fears, my shames, my joys and my ‘everything’...it is the time when I am truly standing fully open...like an opened book in front of a reader... God is the reader and I am the book...

The quiet hour is the time when I take the day to stand in the shadow of my Lord...the quiet hour sanctifies me, chastens me and touches me...the quiet hour is the time when I tell him of His greatness, of His majesty and of His love...the quiet time is when I keep shut for Him...when I listen to His roar of the sea, when I heed His whisperings in the wind and when I am aware of His presence in the ray of light.

"God, bless my quiet hour...least it be taken away from me."

Rules and Relationship

Jesus tells us always that the spiritual life is not all about rules; it is about relationship...when we commit ourselves to relationship with God, we are committing to a unique relationship that we each nurture in individual ways. We pray differently, we serve differently, we deepen our love for God by different spiritual practices.

As I constantly search for new ways of building my relationship, life becomes exiting...life becomes worth living...life becomes a precious gift from God. Making my prayer-life a lifelong relationship with the Lord is what I strive today.

Why pray in a Church ?

Many ask me, “Why pray in a Church?” After all, Bible never records any teachings of Jesus that tells us to pray in a Church or anything like that. For me, I am still fishing out a full answer to that question. By the way, I found the following beautiful inscription at the entrance of First Presbyterian Church at Dallas.

Enter this door...
As if the floor within were gold,
And every wall of jewels,
All of wealth untold...
As if a choir in robes of fire

were singing here.
Nor shout – nor Rush

But Hush---

for

GOD IS HERE!

I am thinking of those words every time I enter any church.

Deep is calling to deep....

Quiet Waters...

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.“

...... Psalm 23:1 to 4

A prayer life as a God-centred dialogue

What could it be to pray unceasingly ? Does it mean that we murmur words throughout day and night? Or does it mean that we cannot have any space for non-God thoughts in our mind? I had been thinking of this mystical statement from St. Paul often. Recently I ran into it again, when reading Rev. Henri Nouwen . This is it: To pray unceasingly , as St. Paul asks us to do, would be completely impossible if it meant to think constantly about God... To pray, I think does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things, or to spend time with God instead of spending time with other people. Rather, it means to think and live in the presence of God. .... Although it is important and even indispensible for the spiritual life to set apart time for God and God alone, prayer can only become unceasing prayer when all our thoughts- beautiful or ugly, high or low, proud or shameful, sorrowful of joyful – can be thought in the presence of God. Thus, converting our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer moves us from a self-centred monologue to a God-centred dialogue.
To pray unceasingly is to lead all our thoughts out of their fearful isolation into a fearless conversation with God.