Keep On Praying

“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone” 1 Timothy 2:1

There is the story by Anthony Bloom, of an elderly woman who had been working at prayer with all her might but without ever sensing God’s presence.

Wisely, the archbishop encouraged the old woman to go to her room each day and “for fifteen minutes knit before the face of God, but I forbid you to say one word of prayer.

You just knit and try to enjoy the peace of your room.” The woman received this counsel, and at first her only thought was, “Oh, how nice. I have fifteen minutes during which I can do nothing without being guilty!”

In time, however, she began to enter the silence created by her knitting.

Soon, she said, “I perceived that this silence was not simply an absence of noise, but that the silence had substance. It was not absence of something but presence of something.”

As she continued her daily knitting, she discovered that “at the heart of the silence there was he who is all stillness, all peace, all poise.”

Our all-powerful Heavenly Father desires and answers our prayers.

Thank Jesus that we can take all prayer requests directly to Him, and He intercedes for us.

“To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.” – John Calvin

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” – Ephesians 6:18