Continuing from his book ‘Just Like Jesus’, Max Lucado taught:
Give God your waiting thoughts. Spend time with him in silence. The mature married couple has learned the treasure of shared silence; they don’t need to fill the air with constant chatter. Just being together is sufficient. Try being silent with God. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10) Awareness of God is a fruit of stillness before God.
Dan Rather once asked Mother Teresa. “What do you say to God when you pray?”Mother Teresa answered quietly, “I listen.”
Taken aback, Rather tried again, “Well, then, what does God say?”
Mother Teresa smiled, “He listens.”6
Give God your whispering thoughts. Through the centuries Christians have learned the value of brief sentence prayers, prayers that can be whispered anywhere, in any setting, Laubach sought unbroken communion with God by asking Him questions. Every two or three minutes he would pray, “Am I in your will Lord,?” “Am I pleasing you, Lord?”
In the nineteenth century an anonymous Russian monk set out to live in unceasing communion with God. In a book entitled The Way of the Pilgrim, he tells how he learned to have one prayer constantly in his mind: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ With time the prayer became so internalized that he was constantly praying it, even while consciously occupied with something else.
Imagine considering every moment as a potential time of communion with God. By the time life is over you will have spent six months at stop lights, eight months opening junk mail, a year and a half looking for lost stuff, and a whopping five years standing in various lines. Why don’t you give those moments to God? By giving God your whispering thoughts, the common becomes uncommon. Simple phrases such as “Thank you Father,” “Be sovereign in this hour, O Lord,” “You are my resting place, Jesus” . . . can turn a commute into a pilgrimage. You needn’t leave your office or kneel in your kitchen. Just pray where you are. Let the kitchen become a cathedral or the classroom a chapel. Give God your whispering thoughts.
And last, give God your waning thoughts. At the end of the day, let your mind settle on him. Conclude your day as you begin it: talking to God. Thank him for the good parts. Question him about the hard parts. Seek his mercy. Seek his strength. And as you close your eyes, take assurance in the promise: “He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). If you fall asleep as you pray, don’t worry. What better place to doze off than in the arms of your Father. God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be. . . JUST LIKE JESUS. ~ Max Lucado, (Nashville, Word Publishing, 1998)~ Max Lucado, (Nashville, Word Publishing, 1998), 71-73
