Prayer for todayDear Lord the eternal ecstatic joy within me is often turned into bondage by my labeling mind. Please give me some meditative wisdom.

High and holy ambition--to be a saint--is not opposed to holy humility--total reliance on Gods grace. Exactly the opposite. Ambition without humility is ambition that fails. It is pride which goes before a fall Prov 1618. Humility without ambition is false humility.

After defending the value of prepared prayers the author cautions against over-reliance on them. Just as David could not fight in the armor of King Saul we are called to fight in the way God has equipped us uniquely.

Make this poor self grow less and less Be Thou my life and aim Oh make me daily through Thy grace More worthy of Thy name.

Sniffing glue is a homeless nonbelievers prayer.

The Word is light and the Holy Spirit is oxygen to pray is to see and breathe.

A prayer might actually be worth something to those that are doing it if they believe in it enough. Its a total waste of my time though.

Why bother praying It does not matter if we have developed bad habits in limiting prayer to only asking for things but prayer is much much richer than that. By all means lets keep asking God to keep changing us but lets also give praise and thanksgiving crying out in lamentation affirm our trust and faith sing of our salvation and simply wait upon the Lord. There is a way to pray for all seasons under the sun.

Perhaps priest and magician were once one but the priest learning humility in the face of God discarded the spell for prayer.

Our prayer life and rule of prayer will be shaped by the different stages of our spiritual journey as well. Many people who have just come to know Christ find that their words flow easily. Prayer is a joy for them. But as with romantic relationships there is a natural movement beyond this honeymoon phase. When feelings of intense connection with God ebb we have a new opportunity to engage God - not based on cool spiritual vibes but as an expression of our genuine love for God. Times of spiritual dryness are normal for almost everyone even if we havent sinned and to the best of our knowledge havent done anything to wall off our relationship with God. God may allow this dryness so that we can mature in our relationship with him and learn to seek him not for an ecstatic spiritual experience but out of a deeper love and commitment.