The Kiss

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  “Ryabovitch pulled the bed-clothes over his head, curled himself up in bed, and tried to gather together the floating images in his mind and to combine them into one whole. But nothing came of it. He soon fell asleep, and his last thought was that someone had caressed him and made him happy—that something extraordinary, foolish, but joyful and delightful, had come into his life. The thought did not leave him even in his sleep. When he woke up the sensations of oil on his neck and the chill of peppermint about his lips had gone, but joy flooded his heart just as the day before.” The Kiss By Anton Chekhov (1860–1904)

6. Ways and Means of Prayer

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"praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching to this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." (Eph 6:18)

No kind of prayer is disallowed. Generally speaking, conversation with God in every form is acceptable; that is, talking with God requires no one posture, circumstance, place or time. What is disqualified however is mindless, meaningless prayer. Though the Spirit intercedes with groaning does not mean we just mystically "open up" in something we call "prayer" and let the Spirit do the rest. We don't close our eyes and go for the warm fuzzy. God would no more pay attention to this rude interruption of true prayerfulness than you or I would pay attention to someone who steps uninvited into a dialogue only to deliver blank stares. Prayer is not a thoughtful contemplative sigh that "only God understands". Prayer is not just breating in and out thinking that something spiritual is taking place.

In prayer, there will be a place or time when we "run out" of words--but this is where we get to listen in our insufficient dependence on Him.

The all-encompassing nature of prayer is specific, involving every opportunity to exploit every available kind of persistent and persevering constancy with God: acknowledging, confessing, imploring, asking, thanking, praising, interceding, listening as the Holy Spirit enables.

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