Can You Pray Too Much?
Soul Snack 178/14 ... Do you consider it worthwhile to pray?
The Apostle Paul has set the bar very high:
Pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
The intelligent counsel of Henri Nouwen advises, Pray always (continually) literally means ‘to come to rest.’
In fact, the real and personal value of unceasing prayer becomes that the pray-er will receive unceasing rest.
Ceaseless interior prayer is the yearning of the human spirit towards God. ~ Henri Nouwen
Peace upon the soul arrives to one constantly upon their knees. It is available to the God-yearning human spirit. Weakness upon the knees is a great peace hindrance.
It is the discipline of the body, the suffering of the soul that awakens the prayers of the heart, and then thirsts for days of devotion.
The crisis of our prayer life is that our minds may be filled with the duties of the day, the stressors of yesterday or the fears of tomorrow - keeping our hearts at great distance from Him
To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart... ~ Theophan the Recluse
Prayer is the sharing of self, a verbal trip via faith into the lap of the Lord. It is the desire to admit the Lord into life. It is here that His heart speaks to our heart and vice versa.
By its very nature prayer transforms our whole being into Christ, precisely because it opens the eyes of the soul to the truth of ourselves as well as to the truth of God. ~ Henri Nouwen
So - do you want rest and truth? I hear a hearty YES, then...
You can pray too little, but you cannot pray too much.
Today's Soul Snippet:
"Theology is faith seeking understanding.'" ~ Brennan Manning
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#Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart (New York: HarperCollins, 1981) 69.
ENJOY ~ Endless Prayer?