Prayer Unites

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3). 

Who you really are is your essence. Your essence or soul or true self is the you hidden with Christ in God. That’s who you meet in prayer. It is a grand reunion, with your essence, with God, and indeed with many others.

The word “religion” (re-ligio) means to reconnect. All true religion puts things back together: spirit and matter, God and creation, us and them, you and your essence.

You cannot lose your essence or damage it. It is hidden with Christ in God. But you can leave it and ignore it.

Children are naturally at one with their essence. Probably that’s why Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18). Jesus was pointing to the destination: Follow me back to your truest self, the self you were as a child, before you learned to hide it. 

Prayer is a good way to follow. In prayer, Jesus leads you back to yourself.

Pastor Clark Olson-Smith