Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
The Apostle Paul tells us that we are to talk with God without ceasing. Well, how do we do that? Let me ask you this...how do talk with your best friend? The one who knows you best, the one who has been with you through your worst times. The one who has been with you during your best times. The one who knows your secrets and still wants to hang with you.
The one you share inside jokes with.
I struggled with prayer most of my life because I thought it was some ritualized formula that had to be done with certain vocal inflections, using certain pious words and postures, and if you enjoyed it, you were doing it wrong. Then I came across a quote from a Medieval Monk named Francois Fenelon that opened my eyes.
"Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its
pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell God your troubles, that
God may comfort you; tell God your joys, that God may sober them; tell
God your longings, that God may purify them; tell God your dislikes,
that God may help you conquer them; talk to God of your temptations,
that God may shield you from them: show God the wounds of your heart,
that God may heal them. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses,
needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. Talk out of the
abundance of the heart, without consideration say just what you think.
Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse
with God." –Francois Fenelon
His point? Prayer is a conversation with God!
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