Pray continually. 1 Thessalonians 5:17
“You and you and you and I do experience fine fresh contact with God sometimes, and do carry, out His will sometimes. One question now to be put to the test is this: Can we have that contact with God all the time? All the time awake, fall asleep in His arms, and awaken in His presence, can we attain that? Can we do His will all the time? Can we think His thoughts all the time?
Or are there periods when business, and pleasures, and crowding companions must necessarily push God out of our thoughts? “Of course, that is self-evident. If one thinks of God all the time, he will never get anything else done.” So I thought too, until now, but I am changing my view. We can keep two things in mind at once. Indeed we cannot keep one thing in mind more than half a second. Mind is a flowing something. It oscillates. Concentration is merely the continuous return to the same problem from a million angles. We do not think of one thing. We always think of the relationship of at least two things, and more often of three or more things simultaneously. So my problem is this: Can I bring God back in my mind-flow every few seconds so that God shall always be in my mind as an after image, shall always be one of the elements in every concept and percept?
I choose to make the rest of my life an experiment in answering this question.
Someone may be saying that this introspection and this struggle to achieve God-consciousness is abnormal and perilous. I am going to take the risks, for somebody ought to do it, in this day when psychological experimentation has given a fresh approach to our spiritual problems. If our religious premises are correct at all then this oneness with God is the most normal condition one can have. It is what made Christ, Christ. It is what St. Augustine meant when he said “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our souls are restless until they find their rest in Thee.”
I do not invite anybody else to follow this arduous path. I wish many might: We need to know so much which one man alone cannot answer. For example:
“Can a laboring man successfully attain this continuous surrender to God? Can a man working at a machine pray for people all day long, talk with God all day long, and at the same time do His task efficiently?”
“Can a merchant do business, can an accountant keep books, ceaselessly surrendered to God?”
“Can a mother wash dishes, care for the babies, continuously talking to God?”
“Can a politician keep in a state of continuous contact with God, and not lose the following of the crowds?”
“Can little children be taught to talk and listen to God inwardly all day long, and what is the effect upon them?”
Briefly, is this a thing which the entire human race might conceivably aspire to achieve? Do we really mean what we say when we repeat “the highest end of man is to find God and to do His will” all the time?
If you are like myself this has been pretty strong diet this afternoon. It may even prove discouraging. So I will put something simpler and more attainable:
“Any hour of any day may be made perfect by merely choosing. It is perfect if one looks toward God that entire hour, waiting for His leadership all through the hour and trying hard to do every tiny thing exactly as God wishes it done, as perfectly as possible. No emotions are necessary. Just the doing of God’s will perfectly makes the hour a perfect one. And the results of that one perfect hour, I believe, will echo down through eternity.”
Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Can we think His thoughts all the time?”
I can relate to this as I arrive in Poland today to speak at a conference with pastors and ministry workers from across Europe and then enter Ukraine on Saturday for meetings in many key cities.
In settings where I feel like a proverbial fish out of water I pray continually. Do I do any good for God? As you can imagine, I do my best work when I am attuned to Him. I see God work like in the Book of Acts.
But in my comfort zone, I can function on autopilot. I can easily forget about God or think I can sort the day on my own strength.
But when I pray continuously, I discern by the Holy Spirit when to remain silent, when to speak, and what words to say. I have no agenda but what I sense from the Lord. I feel this on most every trip.
But it can happen in domestic settings. I was watching my granddaughters the other day, which is less familiar than speaking at a conference for me, and God helped me know what to do in the moment.
Most people like to stay in their comfort zone. There our tendency is to trust in ourself to navigate life. We need to get off the couch. Or as I will tell them in Ukraine, get out of the foxhole.
Surrender five minutes or an hour looking to God and offering to doing His will. You might just make your best contributions ever and decide to make it a way of life.