Monday, July 14, 2014

Prayer and Constant Cleansing (Prayer Summer 2014)

Door, in Jerusalem (Church of the Holy Sepulchre)

Inner cleansing is the fruit of an ongoing prayer life. I experience this all the time, when I pray. It usually happens without self-awareness. That is, after extended times of praying I feel detoxified, cleansed from all unrighteousness.

The deeper meaning of this experience is that I feel loved and understood by God. In a way, God has experienced me. I have been searched out, without condemnation, and restored. Unrighteousness is stripped away to reveal my true self, in Christ. 

Howard Thurman writes:

"I do not know how it happens or quite how to describe it, but I do know that again and again people have come away from prayer freed of their guilt, and with their sin forgiven; they then have a sense of being totally understood, completely dealt with, thoroughly experienced, and utterly healed. This is not to suggest that after the experience a person is always through with their sin. No, but now a solvent is at work on it which dissolves it, and the virus begins to be checked in its breeding place."
- 40-Day Journey with Howard Thurman, 58

As you pray today expect to be cleansed by God's Spirit. A praying person experiences constant cleansing