I thought I would kick of my weekly blog on maintaining daily prayers by confronting what I think will always be the first challenge to success in prayer. This is a monster that is found in churches but surprisingly within individuals who do not go to church either i.e the blind following of systems and in the church’s case it is the nemesis called religion.
Now before I say anything more, let’s define this sometimes misused word. A good start in terms of agreeing definitions would be an authority such as Oxford Dictionaries. The definitions given here are as follows.
1. The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a special god or gods
2. A particular system of faith and worship
3. A pursuit of interest followed with great devotion
I must confess that when it comes to prayer and short daily prayers, as the blogger number 3 defines this very well as this is the foundation for this blog on the subject of prayer. But that devotion and pursuit also needs to be tamed appropriately.
Naturally once we understand what we mean by religion we also need to understand what we mean by religious. Essentially this is the practice of religion and is the subject of this piece.
Going back to my previous point. It is religion and its unfettered practice which can be framed by either definition that I believe is a great hindrance to prayer. You see the challenge is that you have to acknowledge and understand the hurdle of religion to fully explore the power of prayer and of course practice it every day.
Now because there is a general underestimation of religion and its potency, out there, no one is talking about it because those who ought to are to busy engaged in the its practice. Regrettably this also has an impact on prayer.
Take definition number 1. Most people whether they belief in an ultimate power or not have their actions governed by whatever they believe. So if they think there is nothing else out there they will definitely not pray. After all what is the point there is no one listening.
However this is not a big issue with many readers of this blog as most do already believe in a supernatural power or at least there are exploring the possibility.
For all of us the starting point is to acknowledge that there is a greater superhuman power. Now assuming you already believe this the blog will help you a lot.
To start with you need to explore some form of communication with that controlling power. Over the next weeks and months you will learn how best to do that and in my opinion there is nothing greater than prayer.
Sticking with our definition of religion. In Christianity there is a manual that defines the system of faith and worship, i.e the Christian religion. Devotees of this manual will pursue its tenants with great vigour.
Again by that definition most Christians are therefore obviously in a religion. The degree of commitment may be different but nonetheless there is devotion.
Then there is the question of worship. Is prayer worship?
A good starting point to explore part of this issue, is this article. It essentially talks about worship but the lessons here are equally applicable to simple prayer.
In my next article we’ll look into more interesting things around prayer.
Prayeronline: Father thank you for the time of sharing. Help us all understand your ways better. Be with and comfort all those who are suffering today and continue to give us a heart to accept the things we cannot change but to trust you in every step of our lives. Amen
P.S To receive our newsletter and other material free of charge. Just enter your contact details in our mailing list.
Any problems with Depression you may find some helpful information here.