Daily Devotion - Thursday, January 22

Prayer

“Teach us to pray.”
--The disciples of Jesus making a special request

Today we again focus on prayer, a way of life that is important to people of every faith tradition. It is a wonderful path to maintaining and developing a sense of the divine while experiencing life that seems less than heavenly. In the Jewish tradition, their songs are filled with prayers of praise to God. We hear it often with phrases like “praise to You, O God.”

The Jewish tradition is not afraid to voice prayers of disappointment to the Almighty. “O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.” (Psalm 22:2) Another prayer from the Jewish tradition goes like this: “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when feeling it not. I believe in God even when he is silent.”

Often prayer is more about listening to silence than it is verbalizing to the divine.

Prayer: Speak in your way, God, for I am ready to listen. Amen.

Ben Keckler
01.22.09