Prayer

I know you are all checking your RSS feeds and just want to see pretty pictures or read very short quotes, but I would ask you to slow down and just take the three minutes needed to read this hymn in its entirety.

Don't skim it.

Read it, and let it wash over your soul anew this Sunday afternoon.


Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Uttered, or unexpressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.


Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear;
The upward glancing of an eye
When none but God is near.


Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high.


Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
The Christian’s native air;
His watchword at the gates of death;
He enters rest with prayer.


The saints in prayer appear as one,
In word, and deed, and mind;
While with the Father and the Son
Sweet fellowship they find.


O Thou, by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way,
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod—
Lord, teach us how to pray.



You have the extreme privilege of speaking to the God of the universe, and he listens.

Is prayer your "vital breath?"