- “Praying is like breathing; it is part of the Christian’s life and basic to it. It is more than formal prayer, important as that is. It is a continual openness to God in all our being. Instead of talking to ourselves as we go through the day, we talk to God, sentence prayers, momentary calls for help, grace, or strength, quick words of thanks, or expressions of need, all this and more. Such constant sentence praying gives us the greatest freedom and advantage in prayer, because it is the practice of the presence of God, of our awareness of it. Its greatest reward is the growing awareness that God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. (Systematic Theology, p. 7204)
This is akin to what St. Paul wrote to the Philippians:
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” Phil. 4:6-7 All anxiety can be dissolved into a godly peace that serves as an impenetrable wall to your heart and mind. My father used this practice of a continuous conversation with God to do more than guard his own heart-he used it to triumph over the spirit of the age:
- “The habit of continual sentence prayers will take a man out of these evil times and give him grace and power to triumph over the spirit of the age and more.” (Ibid.)
~ Mark Rushdoony