A Prayer from the Heart

Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of you, let my first impulse be to worship you, let my first word be your Name, let my first action be to kneel before you in prayer. For your perfect wisdom and perfect goodness; For the love you have for all people; For the love you have for me; For the great and mysterious opportunity of my life; For your Spirit, who dwells in my heart; For the seven gifts of your Spirit; I praise and worship you, O Lord. Yet when this morning prayer is finished, do not let me think that my worship is ended and spend the rest of the day forgetting you. Rather, from these quiet moments, let light and joy and power pour out and remain with me through every hour of this day.” —John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer

We learn by practicing. We learn to walk by observing other people walking, but at some point we are forced to learn to balance our weight over our feet as we put one foot in front of the other; at some point we must step out in faith. Prayer is the same way. We can observe others praying—and indeed, this is a great way to learn the practice of prayer—but at some point we need to put our hearts into the action of prayer; get our feet wet, so to speak. In today’s reading, we have a gift from John Baillie, a model prayer to make our own. My prayer for you today is to make each word of this prayer your own; to put your heart into bringing a petition before your Lord; to grow in the practice of prayer. You will learn, as we all do, that meeting your Heavenly Father in prayer is both a privilege and a blessing, both your comfort and your strength. Let us pray! —DH