When You Need to Pray

Guideposts executive editor Rick Hamlin shares how you can pray with the perfect peace of Jesus.

Guideposts executive editor Rick Hamlin

READ: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. . . .  – 2 Corinthians 3:18

REFLECT: My wife, Carol, and I were hiking in the High Sierras on a crystal clear day along a trail bordering a fast-rushing stream lined with ferns, rust-colored Indian paintbrush, purple lupine. At the top, we reached a clearing and a glacier-fed lake that was smooth as glass.

The lake showed the image of the blue sky, the treeless mountains, the meadow and the vibrant wildflowers. The water was so placid, not a breath of wind rippling its surface, you could see all of nature reflected there.

I could almost hear what a minister had once told me about prayer: “Find a place where there are few distractions. Let your body be still and your mind uncluttered with thoughts.”

Now I understood. A mind unruffled, like a lake undisturbed, can more perfectly reflect the glory of God.

PRAY: Father, I need to pray, but not the kind of prayer that keeps the waters ruffled with continuous requests and repetitive chatter. I need to see Your glory reflected in the stillness of my own heart.

DO: Be still until the thoughts quit coming and that perfect peace reflects Jesus.

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Excerpted from Time Out for the Spirit.

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