Connections
Read Matthew 6:5-13.
My first online experience was AOL. America Online. Like every other American at the time, I got one of those discs in the mail that promised super-fast speeds and email and all the other wonders of the then-developing internet. And you got your first month free, or something like that. I only knew one other person in the world who had email at the time, and that was a friend serving as a missionary in Africa. So I put the disc in my Mac, installed the software, and clicked, "Go online."
The noises that were soon blaring from my Mac's speakers were unsettling, but I quickly came to recognize those sounds as friendly. They were the indicators that I was connecting in some mysterious way to this vast, online repository of knowledge. (Actually, it was AOL. It wasn't that vast at the time, but it seemed vast to me.) If you are my age, you can still hear those sounds in your head.
Several years later, when I got online with a constant connection (and at a high speed!), it was sort of strange not to hear those dial-up tones. I quickly got used to it, though, and now can't imagine not having instant access to the internet when I'm at home...or at work...or at Starbucks.
Every once in a while, though, my MacBook will say it's connected to the network when it's really not. This morning, for instance. The Wifi indicator in my menu bar said "connected," but I couldn't get online. The reason? It was so familiar with this network (Starbucks) that this morning (unlike normally) it didn't bother checking to see if any further steps were needed. A glitch in the software just assumed that if the Wifi connection was there, I could get online. A quick reboot and all was well. Connection was made.
And that all got me to thinking about our prayer life. Jesus assumes we will pray. He doesn't say, "If you pray." He says, "When you pray." When, not if. We're called to connect with our heavenly Father through prayer. We're also told to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It's to be an "always on" connection. But sometimes, it seems, we have difficulty connecting. Sometimes it seems like our prayers bounce off the ceiling and go nowhere. Sometimes we need a spiritual reboot, a renewal or a "kick in the pants" to restart our prayer life.
Wouldn't it be great to have those old dial-up tones or some sort of heavenly music to let us know when we're connected? Instead, we rely on the presence of the Holy Spirit, and sometimes our own stuff (our own static, our own familiarity) gets in the way. We may not "feel" like our prayers are making connections, but rest assured we are told that when we pray, God hears us. That doesn't mean we'll always get what we think we want, but it does mean he hears us.
We can be "always connected." Perhaps more important than having a set time of prayer with a set duration is the connection we make with our heavenly Father all day long. That's not to say we shouldn't set aside time to pray. It's to say that, in reality, prayer never ceases. Prayer never stops if we make sure the connection is always on. We don't need those sign-on tones, after all. Our heavenly Father is always there, waiting to hear from us. Just stay connected.
My first online experience was AOL. America Online. Like every other American at the time, I got one of those discs in the mail that promised super-fast speeds and email and all the other wonders of the then-developing internet. And you got your first month free, or something like that. I only knew one other person in the world who had email at the time, and that was a friend serving as a missionary in Africa. So I put the disc in my Mac, installed the software, and clicked, "Go online."
The noises that were soon blaring from my Mac's speakers were unsettling, but I quickly came to recognize those sounds as friendly. They were the indicators that I was connecting in some mysterious way to this vast, online repository of knowledge. (Actually, it was AOL. It wasn't that vast at the time, but it seemed vast to me.) If you are my age, you can still hear those sounds in your head.
Several years later, when I got online with a constant connection (and at a high speed!), it was sort of strange not to hear those dial-up tones. I quickly got used to it, though, and now can't imagine not having instant access to the internet when I'm at home...or at work...or at Starbucks.
Every once in a while, though, my MacBook will say it's connected to the network when it's really not. This morning, for instance. The Wifi indicator in my menu bar said "connected," but I couldn't get online. The reason? It was so familiar with this network (Starbucks) that this morning (unlike normally) it didn't bother checking to see if any further steps were needed. A glitch in the software just assumed that if the Wifi connection was there, I could get online. A quick reboot and all was well. Connection was made.
And that all got me to thinking about our prayer life. Jesus assumes we will pray. He doesn't say, "If you pray." He says, "When you pray." When, not if. We're called to connect with our heavenly Father through prayer. We're also told to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It's to be an "always on" connection. But sometimes, it seems, we have difficulty connecting. Sometimes it seems like our prayers bounce off the ceiling and go nowhere. Sometimes we need a spiritual reboot, a renewal or a "kick in the pants" to restart our prayer life.
Wouldn't it be great to have those old dial-up tones or some sort of heavenly music to let us know when we're connected? Instead, we rely on the presence of the Holy Spirit, and sometimes our own stuff (our own static, our own familiarity) gets in the way. We may not "feel" like our prayers are making connections, but rest assured we are told that when we pray, God hears us. That doesn't mean we'll always get what we think we want, but it does mean he hears us.
We can be "always connected." Perhaps more important than having a set time of prayer with a set duration is the connection we make with our heavenly Father all day long. That's not to say we shouldn't set aside time to pray. It's to say that, in reality, prayer never ceases. Prayer never stops if we make sure the connection is always on. We don't need those sign-on tones, after all. Our heavenly Father is always there, waiting to hear from us. Just stay connected.
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