I was led this morning to change the subject for discuss today. I read something yesterday on a friend's profile and it said "THIS IS MY SECRET, I PRAY". That statement got me thinking of the basic principles we seize to partake in to achieve greatness while we search for more Charismatic Principles that will transform, regenerate and alter the events in our life. a simple, powerful, fundamental principle to continuously seeing the hand of God in our lives is prayer.
There's a difference between a ritual and a doctrine. Doctrine may have inclusive rituals that support its beliefs. But a ritual can not be a doctrine. Prayer has been acknowledged to many religions as the fundamental "ritual" that is part of the doctrine that man communicates with God (or their god - as the case implies) with or through.
The 21st Century brought an advent of technology that has literally turned the way people behave, relate and even communicate with and to one and another. In our day people are better friends with their phones than they are with human beings, there are more "realistic" online relationships than physical relationships that exists, people would rather send you a message than tell you what they are feeling. In the midst of all this man is seeking for ways to answer, understand and strengthen his relationship with his inner man; for christian this in turn leads us to God. This continuous quest always leads to us having some mental and verbal communication with Him; prayer.
As Christian we learn from the bible, precisely Christ (Matthew 6: 9-13). In this verses of scripture Jesus begins to give an outline of what and how we should pray. We shall discuss in the coming days to fully understand what each phrase may mean to various classes and how to effectively work with this divine outline for our good.
Today I want to focus on something Jesus said about prayer in Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:37. He said can you not pray with me for one hour. When I read this scripture I considered this an assignment not a guideline.
So how do I start this process of maintaining the One Hour Mark Daily. Please I will like you to recall that Jesus never said that why could pray with me through out the time I was praying, he mentioned an hour. So it tells me two things; Jesus prayed much longer than an while in Gethsemane and that he never insisted on an hour stretch of prayer.
Have you ever asked yourself how many hours you spend driving, chatting, arguing about your favourite football stars, actors, singers and entertainers, politics, responding to BBM, Whatsapp, Wechat, Instagram, and Text Messages? Before I continue kindly do this analysis and you will discover that an average of 90 mins is spent every day to respond to these messages. A study has shown that average individual today spends over eight hours (8Hrs) on electronic devices; these devices include your TV, Mobile device, Electronic Gadgets etc. Also have shown that most people are awake and active from 7am to 9pm each day which adds up to 15 Hours of being awake.
Based on this math I will like to suggest a simple exercise. Prayer for 4 minutes for every Hour you are awake and active. This may seem funny but if you can maintain this ritual, you will imbibe a doctrine that has eternal value to you, your family and everyone around you.
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