Non-stop praying

Pray Continually.  1 Thes 5:17

Many months ago I wrote about how I have this habit of quoting a verse of Scripture as a prayer every time my older children would leave the house and commute to school, church ministry center, or anywhere they would go.  Here is that verse:

Psalm 91:11-12  For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
12  they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

So I would pray “Lord, command your angels to guard them in all their ways”.  Here in Bacolod we may have less crime compared to Manila or Cebu, but we still do have our cases of holdups, snatching and slashing of bags.  And, who knows when an accident will happen?  And so every time they travel my prayer is that the Lord may protect my kids, and charge His angels to guard them always.

When my daughter left for her training stint in Singapore of course my prayers continued, especially since I would not be able to see her at the end of the day to assure me that everything went well and she did have the protection of the Lord with her.  But you would think that there would be no need for prayers, knowing that Singapore is such a safe and modern place.  The streets are well lighted the whole night.  There are cameras in the streets that keep watch.  And the crime rate is really low.  You would think that in such a modern and almost perfect society you would not need the protection of the Lord.

Until I heard from my daughter, and saw in the news, that a 14 yr old girl fell into the tracks of their MRT, and if I’m right lost her legs, or at least almost lost them.  That’s where I realized that no matter how modern or efficient a society may be, yet the need for the protection of the Lord is always there!  No one is perfect, no society is so perfect as to not need the Lord’s guidance and protection always.

It’s when things seem so smooth and flawless that we need to remind ourselves that we still need the presence and guidance of our Lord.  When things are going well, and it seems that there is no need for the Lord’s protection or guidance, we tend to put our guards down, and just trust in society, circumstances, or even ourselves.  But we need to pray without ceasing.  We always need the Lord’s protection, guidance and presence.  We need to pray without ceasing.