Prayer and Meditation
Prayer is not merely, as some say, “the breathing of the soul.” It is the imbibing of life itself. If we stop praying, life ebbs away. As long as we pray, our lives remains warm, ardent, and vigorous, for in prayer we meet God himself in Christ. In Christ is life—yes, in him alone (John 1:4). We experience this life only insofar as we search for him and love him, and only to the extent that we come to him and receive him in prayer. “Eating the flesh” and “drinking the blood” of the Son of Man actually takes place every time we meet him personally, so that he is in us and we are in him. Neither my prayer nor my conduct can bring life; what is crucial is that Christ is my life.
Ebooks on Prayer and Meditation
The Prayer God Answers
Why should I pray? What should I pray for? Why has God not answered my prayers? What if everything we prayed for came true? Would I be ready? In this essay, Eberhard Arnold describes the kind of prayer that pleases God, and the power of prayer to transform our lives and our world.
Lift Thine Eyes: Evening Prayers for Every Day of the Year
Children the world over are taught to say prayers at bedtime - but how many adults take time to turn to God at the end of the day? This collection of prayers is one of the few daily devotionals especially intended for use in the evening.
Cries from the Heart: Stories of Struggle and Hope
In times of crisis, all of us reach for someone,or something, greater than ourselves. Some call it prayer. Others just do it. People will see themselves in these stories of anguish, triumph, and peace.
"One can pray in many different places and in different ways. Sometimes prayer doesn’t come easily; at other times it flows. Prayer can be silence, singing, reading, even walking, for we can talk to God anywhere."
Poems and Rhymed Prayers
Eberhard Arnold published most of his essays during his lifetime, but almost none of his poems. It might have been shyness: many are love poems, and others reveal private struggles. But if they open a window on a man's inmost thoughts, they also show him at his most essential and Christ-centered. Each one can be used as a starting point for prayer and meditation.
Inner Words for Every Day of the Year
Remember the Daily Dig emails? Now you can download and print out an entire year's worth of daily meditations all at once. These prayers and meditations were selected by Emmy Arnold, drawing from the writings of her husband Eberhard Arnold, as well as those of Augustine, Blumhardt, Bodelschwingh, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Meister Eckhart, Hermann Loens, Martin Luther, Thomas a Kempis, Hudson Taylor and others.
Articles on the Power of Prayer
Giving Thanks
"Oddly enough, Thanksgiving was the one time Dad said his “own” grace before dinner. Throughout the rest of the year it was the standard, “Our Father, we thank thee…” At Thanksgiving, he quietly, almost tearfully, thanked God for the many blessings that had been bestowed upon us...."
The Force Behind Nature
"It is good to be busy," writes Silesius, "and better to pray, but far better to stand mute and still before your God."
This the poets have always sung, and this is the task and meaning of poetry: to represent values other than those that can be measured in work done or profit gained. But there must be work, too. Both activity and contemplation are part of true living. Augustine says,
"One may not be so given to contemplation that he forgets the good of his neighbor, nor so much in love with action that he forgets divine speculation."