Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Short Prayers: A Month's Meditations for the Searching Soul
    Short Prayers: A Month's Meditations for the Searching Soul
    Short Prayers: A Month's Meditations for the Searching Soul
    Ebook102 pages1 hour

    Short Prayers: A Month's Meditations for the Searching Soul

    By Ted Peters

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    You can do a lot with a few words, especially when it comes to prayers. Prayers should be short. Somewhat humorously, we note how Jesus remarks: When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8). Empty phrases packaged in many words do not impress God. God does not need to be impressed, because the divine ear is attentive to our needs before we even speak of them. Hence, those long tedious strings of eloquent verbiage we have become accustomed to hearing from the lips of our priests and pastors are, according to Jesus, superfluous. For the searching soul, short prayers will do just ne. After an introduction which makes just this point, the book follows with thirty-one five-minute chapters, each with a story to meditate on accompanied by a short prayer.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTed Peters
    Release dateOct 28, 2013
    ISBN9780989067645
    Short Prayers: A Month's Meditations for the Searching Soul

    Read more from Ted Peters

    Related to Short Prayers

    Related ebooks

    Prayer & Prayerbooks For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Max Lucado

      Jan 26, 2023

      Max Lucado
      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Mar 10, 2023

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      8 min read

    • Article

      Love Wins

      Jan 24, 2020

      Love Wins
      6 min read

    • Article

      Monday, January 2

      Dec 16, 2022

      “WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU could do better?” a friend asked me recently. Without missing a beat, I quickly replied, “Sing.” I’ve long admired those who have voices that can croon any type of music—Christian, opera, R&B, pop, jazz, or country. I love to si

      1 min read

    • Article

      Sunday, May 23

      Apr 15, 2021

      ON A LOVELY SPRING DAY, my hubby and I stopped at a local park. Volunteer gardeners who maintain the park were hosting a plant sale. Unlike at a garden center, most of the green seedlings didn’t have photos of what they would grow into. Most had only

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tune In To God’s Voice

      Nov 16, 2021

      Tune In To God’s Voice
      1 min read

    • Article

      Christmas Day, Saturday, December 25

      Oct 15, 2021

      For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (KJV) WHEN MY THIRTEEN-Y

      1 min read

    • Article

      Famous Fathers In The Bible

      May 20, 2019

      Scripture is filled with people who we can learn much from. When it comes to the challenging vocation of fatherhood, several fathers in the Bible show what is wise to do—and what is not wise to do. Of course, the most important father figure in the B

      2 min read

    • Article

      Plant Yourself In God’s Word

      Jan 16, 2021

      Plant Yourself In God’s Word
      1 min read

    • Article

      All in Good Time

      May 28, 2021

      All in Good Time
      3 min read

    • Article

      Ask Val

      Sep 23, 2022

      Ask Val
      2 min read

    • Article

      DeVon Franklin

      Sep 26, 2022

      DeVon Franklin
      2 min read

    • Article

      Saturday, May 22

      Apr 15, 2021

      IN MAY 1983, MY HUSBAND, young sons, and I set out for our first visit with our families since moving to the Midwest six months earlier. Unfortunately, our air conditioning stopped working two hours into the trip. I was hot, miserable, and grumpy unt

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Goat Effect

      Sep 26, 2022

      The Goat Effect
      6 min read

    • Article

      Sunday, December 19

      Oct 15, 2021

      Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philip

      1 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Lose Your First Love

      Jun 15, 2020

      Lockdown has forced us all to become accepting of change. During lockdown, most Christians have been logging onto online church services on Sundays, and possibly also their home groups during the week. ‘Doing church’ remotely has become the new norm.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Hearing God’s Voice

      Sep 26, 2021

      Hearing God’s Voice
      5 min read

    • Article

      Monday, January 3

      Dec 15, 2021

      I DIDN’T LINGER AFTER BIBLE study to chat with my friends as I usually did. I had too much to do. As I zoomed out of my parking spot, I caught sight of my friend Linda frantically waving at me. Not now, Jesus! She had a dead battery and needed a jump

      1 min read

    • Article

      Thursday, March 3

      Feb 16, 2022

      MY BOAT’S GALLEY CUPBOARDS ARE stained a deep reddish-brown. The glossy doors look beautiful set against the surrounding off-white walls. Their interiors, however, are a different matter. Humidity levels run high from November through April because w

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Prayer for February

      Jan 15, 2022

      A Prayer for February
      1 min read

    • Article

      Ask Val

      Dec 1, 2023

      Ask Val
      2 min read

    • Article

      MENTORING: A Biblical Responsibility

      Sep 24, 2021

      Mentoring is one of the missing biblical portals that we do not often see taking place in the Body of Christ. Mentoring is not only biblical, it is a requirement. We serve a generational God who, in establishing perpetuity, expects us to facilitate g

      2 min read

    • Article

      Mysterious Ways

      Mar 26, 2022

      Gas. Brake. Gas. Brake. My foot was starting to cramp from switching between the pedals. Typical for prime rush hour. My office was 30 miles from home. Before my first day, I’d mapped several routes. I discovered that no matter when I left or which r

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Importance Of Biblical Hospitality

      Apr 5, 2024

      In the New Testament, the Greek word translated as “hospitality” literally means “love of strangers”. Hospitality is a virtue that is both commanded and commended throughout scripture. In the Old Testament, it was specifically commanded by God: “When

      2 min read

    • Article

      Begin Again

      Jul 26, 2022

      Begin Again
      2 min read

    • Article

      Thursday, December 13

      Oct 15, 2018

      ONE OF MY FAVORITE TIMES of the day is reading aloud to my younger kids. I’ve read books like Little House in the Big Woods, Charlotte’s Web, Betsy-Tacy, and many more wonderful classics. I love sharing some of my most cherished stories with my kids,

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Short Prayers

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Short Prayers - Ted Peters

      A LONG INTRODUCTION TO SHORT PRAYERS

      Prayers should be short. At least this is what Jesus says. When introducing what has become known as The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus remarks:

      NRS Matthew 6:7 When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

      Empty phrases packaged in many words do not impress God. God does not need to be impressed, because the divine ear is attentive to our needs before we even speak of them. Hence, those long tedious strings of eloquent verbiage we have become accustomed to hearing from the lips of our priests and pastors are, according to Jesus, superfluous.

      Jesus still thinks we should pray, however. God responds to prayer. Ask, and it shall be given you, he says in the Sermon on the Mount: Your Father who is in heaven will give good things to those who ask him (Matthew 7:7, 11b). Though prayers should be short, they are not without importance.

      A person can do a lot with a few words. In particular, short prayers can have a specific focus. When highly focused, such a prayer can orient one’s life. Oh, yes, the primary purpose of a prayer is to say something to God. Nevertheless, prayers have a secondary value, namely, they guide our own way of seeing things. Prayers are lenses through which we view our life, through which we can perceive the invisible God to be present and at work in our daily affairs. Prayer is double-talk, so to speak. When we speak to God we are simultaneously speaking to ourselves. When we talk to God, we are understanding ourselves in relation to God, and this means we are understanding our true self. Even if we are searching for an invisible and illusive God, our prayers have a way of uncovering just who we truly are.

      The Self of the Searching Soul

      Perhaps you, the reader, have a searching soul. The searching soul may from time to time ask: Just who am I? Like peeling an onion, we peel and peel until nothing is left at the center. There seems to be no there there. As we look down through the layers of what makes us a self, we find we miss something. What we miss is a bottom, a center, a foundation. No matter how deep we dig into the recesses of our consciousness, only an abyss lies beneath. Introspection seems to confirm something the Buddhists say, namely, that beneath what appears to be our self is emptiness (śūnyatā). This indicates that what we thought to be our self is, in reality, a non-self (anātman).

      The self cannot ground the self. If you fancy yourself to be a rugged individualist, this might come as a bad dream. Yet, it is undeniably the case that we are groundless, anchorless, adrift in an everyday world of physical interactions and mental interpretations. We can tell a story about ourselves, a life story that stretches from our birth to our death. But, what does it mean?

      On our laptop we can manufacture a preferred self in the digital world of secondlife.com. We can project our daydreams into a virtual network that includes the self we want to be. But this second life is even more fleeting than the first one.

      Like a bubble at a child’s birthday party, our entire life floats between the breath that a moment ago blew us into existence and our imminent bursting. We are ephemeral, evanescent, temporary. Before we were born, we did not exist. After we die, we will cease to exist. Perhaps someone two generations from now will remember us, maybe longer if our eulogy was particularly eloquent. But we ourselves will not know whether anyone will ever read what is etched on our tombstone. What we know about ourselves today is temporal and temporary, here for a short span and then, and then, and then.

      Our prayers are shorter than even our life. Our short prayers last only a short time, but they are heard by the everlasting God. What we say defines who we are—defines who we want to be. And if our eternal God grants our prayer then we gain an eternal identity. We are what we pray, so to speak. The self we are searching for turns out to be a gift that God gives us. In prayer, we become aware of this divine gift.

      In prayer we search. Then we find that we have been found. One of Augustine’s short prayers to God gives voice to the searching soul: You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.¹

      God’s Will, Not Mine

      We have a paradox at work here. Only when we surrender our self do we find that we have been given our self, our true and eternal self. Perhaps it is better to call this a miracle rather than a paradox. True religion begins with the quest for meaning and value beyond self-centeredness, writes Huston Smith. It renounces the ego’s claims to finality.²

      This grounding of the self in our eternal God is exemplified in one of the most decisive prayers in history: Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Anticipating the likely mocking, suffering, and death that was imminent, Jesus prays:

      And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless,t not what I want but what you want. (Matthew 26:39).

      After addressing God as Father, Jesus asks that he not have to drink the cup of death. Perhaps making an allusion to the cup of Socrates filled with poison hemlock that put an end to the philosopher’s life, Jesus acknowledges his own desire to avoid Socrates’ fate. Nevertheless—and nevertheless is a mighty big word in this prayer—Jesus concludes by conforming his will to God’s will. Jesus is deliberately orienting his life to God’s will. He will now take courage and take whatever befalls him. By accepting his death at this time and place, Jesus defines himself as one who is at one with God’s eternal will.

      Now many of us might feel a bit discouraged if we look at Jesus as our model for

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1