Never Say Amen!

 

How do you end a prayer?

Some people say, "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.  Amen."  

In our tradition, people often say, "In the name of Jesus.  Amen."

The word "Amen" can be used in different ways.  Jesus used the word when he said, "Truly, truly I say to you . . ." In Greek, the words are "Amen, Amen . . . ." 

Some people like to use it when they are strongly agreeing with something.  You may have heard it called aloud from the congregation when the speaker says something significant and profound.  

At other times, it becomes a punctuation mark for our prayer.  It says, "I'm done talking with God."  Sort of a holy way of saying, "Bye - bye," on the phone.

Paul talks several times about praying continuously.  At first it seems impossible.  Just the idea of bowing your head, closing your eyes and folding your hands seems pretentious or embarrassing as we go through the day.

In Psalm 1, the blessed man is compared with a tree planted by streams of water.  Something jumped out at me as I read this recently - a tree doesn't move.  First of all, it can't unless it is transplanted.  It is there to stay.  But the second reason is that, if it's planted by the streams of water, why would it want to be anywhere else?  

I think there is a way to be constantly in prayer.  In other words, we can be continually aware of God's presence as we go about other activities.  

No, we can't stay put like a tree.  But we can go throughout the day continually connected to God's love and power.

So as far as ending my prayer time?  I will determine in my prayer life never to say "Amen."  Not as a punctuation to end prayer.  I want to be constantly in prayer.

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