faith and life
What counts as prayer?
Michael Williams
Like me, you may be more intimidated than inspired by stories of figures like Martin Luther rising before dawn to get in three hours of prayer before the day began. These examples seem utterly unattainable for the ‘normal’ believer. Yet even Luther’s early morning vigil falls a long way short of the call to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5v17). If we can’t even manage three hours a day, what hope do we have for prayer that never ends?
This is not a new question for believers. Roughly 1,600 years ago the North African pastor, Augustine, was wrestling with just that. His reflections, especially on Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6, give us cause to rethink what ‘counts’ as prayer.