By JUDY KILGORE
jkilgore@thecitizennews.com

We talk about a lot of stuff around here, this being a newspaper office and all, and last week a bunch of us were discussing prayer and the power it held. I think the topic in particular was the healing power of prayer, but no matter. With all the ideas and theologies held by the different people in this office, none of us doubted the fact that prayer could be powerful. Each of us could relate an incident where prayer had been almost miraculous.

Usually, when we think of praying, it is in the context of asking or thanking God for the blessings we want or have in our lives. But in an article in The Beacon, the newsletter for McDonough Road Baptist Church, Dr. David Chancey made me stop and think. Sometimes it's time to shut your mouth, open your mind, and just listen to what God has to say to us. The article, in part, appears below:

“In his book `Directions,' James Hamilton tells about a man who lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched and searched for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but he could not find it. His co-workers looked, but had no luck. A small boy heard about the unsuccessful search and slipped into the icehouse. Soon he came out with the watch. The workers were amazed and asked him how he found it. (The boy replied,) `I closed the door, lay down on the sawdust and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.'

“Often the question is not whether God is speaking, but whether we're still enough and quiet enough to hear. As we begin the busy-ness of `back to the routine,' build time into your life to `be still and know that I am God.' Take time to pray, then make listening and resting in God part of your prayer life. The biggest mistake we could make this year is to commit to the sin of prayerlessness. The more we pray, the more real God's presence becomes to us. And, better yet, the more we become like God. If prayer changes anything, it changes us.”

Wonderful thoughts to ponder, David, as we wind down this first month of the new millennium. A powerful way to start the new year...and the new century.

In the newsletter “Connections,” the publication of the Fayetteville First United Methodist Church, (only I would mix the Methodists and Baptists in the same column) there is a wonderful prayer to start the new year off right. No author is given, so I will just have to credit the newsletter. It's called “A prayer for a new beginning...”

“Touch me, O Lord, with the spirit of truth that I may be honest about my sins and failures. Forgive me for treating your covenant lightly and at times ignoring it completely. Enable me to truly seek and know forgiveness for all the hurts I have caused, for harboring ill will and for any hardness of heart I may have. Please renew a right spirit within me that I may today begin to be more Christ-like and that my life may reveal Christ's love and light. In His name. Amen.”

Amen. Until next time...keep the faith.

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