A Matter of Connections
By Josef W. Hall
MANY persons who do not themselves realize it, make prayer a task. But the truth is usually disclosed when they come to the text, “Pray without ceasing.” “How do you explain this?” they ask with troubled faces. And they are often put off with the meager explanation that the text means, “Keep in the attitude of prayer.” To the man who has walked with God it means a great deal more than “attitude.” It means a line of constant communication open between him and God. It means the instinctive upward turn of the heart; the turning to God for everything and in everything as naturally as the babe turns to its mother, and the knowledge that God likewise turns toward him. “Pray without ceasing” means the conduct of every affair, occupation, plan, friendship, and love on the partnership basis; it means keeping the receiver down at both ends and the wires clear, so that everything is heard, even thoughts,—the thoughts of the Christian shared by God, and the thoughts of God shared by the Christian.