Pray in the depths

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Here's an excerpt from the message sent yesterday:

David Runcorn (A CENTER OF QUIET) tells of an old Christian who lived
in a monastery without newspapers or TV. Runcorn found that the man,
instead of being "out of touch", possessed exceptional wisdom. "The
more we talked, the more my own activities and enthusiasms began to
feel very shallow beside this man. ... In ways I could not comprehend, he
was more deeply alive and involved in the world than I was."

Detachment allows wider perspective for praying more deeply and
effectively. Runcorn tells of a sensitive Christian filled with deep
pain by the evil in the daily news. When she sought counsel, her
counselor told her not to watch news or read newspapers for a year!

But how was she to know what to pray for? Her counselor replied, "You
don't need to have all the details of the world's evil, to know the
evil itself ... you will meet it in prayer ... learn to meet it in the
depths and not simply in its surface forms."

There is a wonderful challenge here -- pray in the depths. Pray against evil in the depths, not only in the surface forms, is our aim. Pray for Christ's character to be formed in our children. Pray for your neighbors and coworkers to have transformed lives that reflect Christ. Pray in the depths.