| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 18 |
Page 5 |
Think of a man doing all his day’s business in this spirit – breathing a little prayer as he commends his wares, as he makes a bargain, as he measures his goods, as he dictates his business letters, as he talks with men. Think of a woman busied with her household cares, literally taking everything to God for his counsel, for his approval, for his direction. These are not by any means impracticable or impossible suppositions. Indeed, that is the way a Christian always should live, doing all in the name of the Lord Jesus, praying without ceasing.
“Give us this day our daily bread, we pray,
And give us likewise, Lord, our daily thought,
That our poor souls may strengthen as they ought,
And starve not on the husks of yesterday.”
“But we have not time in this busy life,” someone says, “to pray so much.” We have time for everything else we want to do; have we not time then to look into God’s face for five minutes before we begin a new day? We do not know what the day may have for us – what temptations, what sudden surprises of danger, what sorrow; what should we do if we did not have God to guide us and help us in all this maddening maze of things? Dare we fail to ask God’s blessing on the journey we are about to take, on the piece of work we are about to begin, on the investment we are about to make, on the new friendship we are just forming, on the new home we are going to move into tomorrow? Time is never wasted that is spent in getting God’s blessing upon our life.
Then, really, it does not require time. We can pray as we work, and work as we pray. It is only looking into God’s face every little while, and saying, “Father, bless me in this piece of work that I am about to begin; sweeten this friendship that I am forming; strengthen me for this struggle upon which I am entering; guide me through this tangle in which I am enmeshed; keep me sweet and patient in this annoyance, this irritation which has come to me.”
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