Bright Idea

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Ps 119:105

Listed as one of the 100 inventions that shaped world history, the electric light bulb was invented in 1879 by Thomas Edison. The bright glowing filament within the glass bulb was the product of channeling a consistent flow of electrical current through the specially designed circuit. It was this silent, invisible current that was the source of the bright glow that has changed our lives and now led to a myriad of other electrical inventions. Likewise, it is the inner life, our thoughts/prayers and desires, that most affect the outer life, our words and works. The observation has been made that when we look at the words and works of Jesus we can summarize them as visible manifestations of His prayer life. In St Luke’s gospel (Chapt 11) we have the record that the disciples watched Jesus praying and asked if He might teach them to pray. How glorious a request! They noted the correlation, I am sure, that it was His life of prayer that was connected to His dynamic ministry. So where did Jesus learn to pray, and what did he pray? Most probably it was within His home life. At His mother’s knee and together with His earthly father, it was the influence of His godly parents that shaped his devotional life. And like other Hebrew boys, he learned to pray the Psalms. Praying this portion of sacred Scripture was the school of prayer.

Can I suggest that to follow Christ in His school of prayer means getting used to reading and praying the Psalms as source of scriptural devotion. When we open up the 150 Psalms contained in the OT we see that it largely means to follow in the footsteps of King David who we know authored at least seventy-three of them. Under his tutelage we learn to honestly acknowledge the highs and lows of the Christian walk and to be able to express those feelings and grow through them. Our Christian life is very much like a pilgrimage and the psalms of ‘ascents’ allude to this journey onward to the great goal of arriving at the House of the Lord. We journey to our heavenly home and should regularly reflect on this joyful theme in our prayer life. Talking of joy, the Psalms are also reminders to give thanks and to live in a spirit of thanksgiving.

Vibrant, heartfelt prayer is like electricity that lights up a life to shine the life of God to our world.