Monday, August 31, 2009

Prayer: The Heartbeat of the Faith

When you look for signs of physical life what do you look for? In physical life you look for the breath of life and a heartbeat. What are the vital signs of spiritual life? They are Praise and Prayer. Praise according to Ron Allen in his book, Praise! A Matter of Life and Breath says that praise was always verbal and public in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). This also holds true in the New Testament. Praise is the most obvious and visible sign of spiritual life. The second sign of spiritual life is prayer. Prayer is more difficult to see because although you can see a person kneeling, lying prostrate, or folding one's hands with closed eyes you can't see what is going on in the heart. We can't hear the words the heart expresses in silence to God. Prayer is a matter of the heart. Prayer demonstrates a heart after God's heart and should affect our outward posture but unless we can read the words the person communicated to God or hear them we don't detect the heartbeat. How is your prayer life? Not just your intercessory prayer life but your biblical prayer life, your devotional life, from Matthew 6:5-15? Do your words in silence with God alone show signs of spiritual life? May our hearts beat with His heart!