Thought for the Day 6/25/2021

 Friday Tale - Prayer from the Heart

John Bunyan said, "In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” A story told by a 19th-century Jewish rabbi shares the same idea:

A disheveled old man entered a synagogue for the first time. Not realizing he was holding the prayer book upside down, he tried to follow the congregation’s singing, but his words were incorrect. Finally, he simply looked toward heaven, repeating one Hebrew word over and over.

      After worship, some people complained to the rabbi, “Why didn’t you ask him to leave?”

      He replied, “That man said more to God with his one word than some of us will ever say in our whole lives. God hears the words of the heart."

~ Jim Gentil

Whatever prayer is made by any man....

each knowing the affliction of his own heart,
and spreading his hands towards this house,
then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and
forgive and act and render to each according
to all his ways, whose heart You know,
for you alone know the hearts of all men."
~ 1 Kings 8:38-39