Thoughts for another day

October 6, 2008.

Today's verse: Daniel 3:40. As though it were holocausts of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, So let our sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame. (RSV - with apocrypha)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

Once, in a small gathering of people, I mentioned that the prayer they made was no prayer. They were shocked as even I would be; but no one asked me why. I said it because I realised that the lips move and the eyes close and the head I is bowed, but the heart isn’t in it! Where the heart is, there you are, because the whole body can be tilted toward a particular thing, but without the heart it is useless.

But when you pray with your heart, the texture of the words change: they comprise meaningful sentences and are said in exactly the same way we ask people to do something when we communicate with them face-to-face! Also, when we do that, we expect them to really do it. That’s exactly what happens when we really pray. We communicate with God and ask Him for things, expecting Him to answer. Remember, the key here is ‘expectation’. Expectation from someone happens only when we commune with that person and we know the person and we also know that he/she will do what we want. I say this today, because, God Himself expects us to expect from Him and oh, how much more will God our Father do things for us when we commune with Him and ask Him with sincere and expecting hearts.

In today’s verse, we see prayer from a believing heart. It’s prayer that recognises the sovereignty of God and acknowledges His presence. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews says, ‘he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.’ In the prayer that is made, the resonating theme is the knowledge of God and the fact of His existence. Furthermore, for Azariah who prays thus, God is not an unknown entity, but One who can be reached for and felt! How good it would be if every one of us would feel the same way about God and reached out to touch Him and feel Him. It is critical that we recognise His presence even in the small things of life and having done that, we allow our hearts to talk to Him and then sit back and relish as He puts little bits of sense in our insensate world, lighting it up with wondrous miracles.