Saturday, August 9, 2014 Greetings, brothers and sisters in Christ. May God bless your prayer today and always. When the Son of God prays, He is mindful and consciously aware of only His Father. - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest As I read todays entry, my six year-old daughter was playing in the next room. God bless her creative imagination. I enjoy watching her give her Littlest Pet Shop animals a ride in the La La Loopsy car. Its amusing, but boy is it hard to focus on anything else while she quietly plays. I found myself reading, and re-reading todays entry which centers around the importance of focus during prayer. The irony was not lost on me. The world is not a quiet place. Each of us is called to prayer at all times, but few of us are called to a cloistered existence. Because of this, we must become disciplined in prayer. Gradually, our focus will increase, allowing us to be consciously aware of only the Father during our prayer time. The topic of focus in prayer brings to mind the Byzantine monks of Mount Athos in Greece. Mount Athos, the only place on Earth to still observe Byzantine time, is a cloistered community of men whom have removed themselves from the world in order to pray for the world unceasingly. At first thought, one wonders how they get anything done. If they are praying (literally) with each breath, how do they maintain focus on other tasks and their prayers simultaneously? It is quite remarkable to watch the monks perform their daily tasks which include art, agriculture grounds work, cooking etc. 60 Minutes aired a special on Mount Athos a couple of years ago. It is a rare glimpse at what is truly a beautiful and godly life. I suggest you look it up. Again, the world is not a quiet place, and yet we are called to be both in and of the world and in fellowship with Chirst. Just like any other acitivity, prayer requires practice. We must pray despite the things which distract us. Remember that those very things which distract us are also blessings to us. My daughter, for example, is a tremendous blessing. I could not give her up, nor would God ask me to. My work is with her at this moment and the most important job I have is the job that I have right now. Thus, I must become disciplined in finding my focus if I am to strengthen both my physical relationships in tandem with my spiritual relationship. Ours must be a vision of both the world before us and the Christ within us. We must be fully engaged in our work and in our prayer. Yours in Christ, Nate Blum
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 19:07:53 +0000
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