To Remain in Him

Think

To remain in Jesus is to live a life of constant prayer. The doesn't mean that our heads are bowed and eyes are closed all the time. It means that praying is as constant as breathing, that we remain in dialogue with the Lord all the time. There is no part of our days that we don't give to Him and no thought that isn't part of a loving conversation with Him. Henri Nouwen writes, . "Prayer requires that we stand in God’s presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. This is difficult in a climate where the predominant counsel is ‘Do your best and God will do the rest.’ When life is divided into ‘our best’ and ‘God’s rest,’ we have turned prayer into a last resort to be used only when all our own resources are depleted. Then even the Lord has become the victim of our impatience.Discipleship does not mean to use God when we can no longer function ourselves. On the contrary, it means to recognize that we can do nothing at all, but that God can do everything through us. As disciples, we find not some but all of our strength, hope, courage, and confidence in God. Therefore, prayer must be our first concern."

Pray

Act

For a few minutes this morning, put aside your busyness and just be still with God. Not everything is pragmatic and measurable, not every act of love is an actual action. Just be a for  few minutes. Make yourself vulnerable; pour out all the little details and every concern. Do it as the first thing, not the last resort. Then, take that time together--that precious memory of intimacy-- and carry it with you all day. Bring it to mind again and again and bring God into every thought and every deed. Remain, all day, in Him.

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my morning run.