Gathering moss from prayer

‘If you walk with Christ in the sunshine, He will walk with you in the shadows’

These words graced my bedroom wall in 1964.

I do not remember it being there. I was reminded when I read a really old sermon.

Back then, many people purchased plaques, blue background and gold lettering, with meaningful and inspiring messages to encourage themselves and others as they travelled along the bumpy road of life.

Today, twitter, facebook, email, etc can scan the world in seconds, faster than having to walk into an unknown room with the expectation that a message may be written there for you.

Anyway, these words inspired me back then to the extent that I used the phrase to introduce a homily I delivered in October 1964.

I went on to speak about the frequency and effectiveness of constant prayer.

When His followers asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he did not say ‘read a book’ or ‘attend a workshop’; He gave them a concrete example ... we call it THE LORD’ PRAYER.

If we used His prayer as our pattern for daily meditations, we would basically follow 5 steps:
Step 1 – PRAISE – say 1 good thing about God;
Step 2 – THANKSGIVING – say 1 thing for which you are thankful;
Step 3 – FORGIVENESS – say you are sorry for 1 thing in your life;
Step 4 – PRAY FOR OTHERS – say 1 thing for some one else;
Step 5 – PRAY FOR YOURSELVES – say 1 thing you need.

Take this pattern of prayer out for a test drive today, and see if it’s for you.

A GENTLE REMINDER – the answer to our prayers may be yes, no, maybe, wait a while, keep trying, you are not ready, etc.

Moss prayers are the ones that stick with you.