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The other day, I was taking a walk with my dogs in the woods. Their noses were going crazy over the smells on the trails. They would stop every once in a while to listen to what animal was making the rustling noise in the leaves.
As I was watching my dogs getting distracted by everything, I couldn’t help but think about the distractions in my life that prevent me from focusing on what’s in front of me, my relationships with my family, friends and even with God.
So often in the distractions of life, my prayer life suffers. So why is our prayer life so important?
Someone once told me that prayer life can resemble either a fire extinguisher or fire proofing. Prayer life of the fire-extinguisher type means one used only in emergency.
But when it is of the proofing kind it enables us, if we pray without losing heart, to surmount any problem whatsoever. The latter is the only prayer life worth having.
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Just what do we think prayer is? It is the Christian’s vital breath. Prayer is a person reaching out their hand toward God, and God reaching down to receive it. Prayer is not just saying, “God give me …”
It is saying, “Thank you, God, for the power and strength that you give me, rendering my life so fireproof that I can make it through anything.”
Prayer is walking and talking with God, as good friends should and do. Our lives would be so different if we would only spend more time thanking God in prayer, then being distracted by the things in life that do not feed us or give us life.
So enjoy the fall weather. Go outside, take a walk or sit on the porch and just talk to God. There is no right or wrong way to pray; just share what is in your heart and on your mind and you will be surprised how good it is to talk to your friend once again.
Drew Bakken is pastor at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Nisswa.
