The key that opens the door to the world of the spirit is prayer. It’s the settling in to quiet and the gazing in awe that carries us in our day; the ability to focus on our work with a purity of intent or overcome despair in difficult circumstances. It is the welcome and hospitality of communities of support and more. To be fully human is to pray.
Our hands engage in tasks. Our feet carry us. Our guts guide us. Our hearts inspire us. And our minds feed us and fuel us. Each carries us in prayer to do good.
As we fill an ordered creation through prayer, our bodies form space in the spiritual world. We may be disabled, have broken bodies, or our brains and senses be curtailed but by God’s grace, each might pray and realize the goodness set before us.
The fruit of settling into who we are and imagining who we might become is peace. Peace is both ours and ours to share. It’s good news. In our guts, we know what is good and true and beautiful. And our gut instincts need proving, especially as we carry peace into the world. Right actions, right words, kindness protect our hearts, keeps them alive for tasks of life. And we need clear heads, right thinking as we manage the troubles of the day and manifest hope.
As we act and speak, it’s as if we wield a sword cutting through the darkness that pervades the world. Paul in Ephesians 6 likens prayer to putting on armour. The premise of putting on this armour is that inhabiting the spiritual realm is a battle. It’s a space where dark entities prowl, looking to pick off and devour the weak, scripture warns us.
In our culture, how do we personify these malevolent entities? We may be comfortable with angels and demons, principalities and powers. We know the powers and principalities, materialism, greed, lust, vanity, indifference, manifest in acts of evil. The light of goodness, truth, and beauty contrast with the darkness of this kingdom of death and violence.
If we recognize it, each of us will have a prayer that brings peace. If this prayer is true, we will find love and share love becoming grace to those around us. From our very being, we will know life bubbling up in us and overflowing, seeking to redeem each and every moment from death to life. This is the good news we share. The rule of God is near us and washed by the spirit of God. We are immersed in his purpose to do good to all. For me, this is what the life, death, and resurrection, of the victory of Jesus over death, declares. And in Christ, I’m daily returned to the path of peace. Being in Christ for me is knowing God to be fully human in Christ and, through Christ, empowering my prayer. All pray. All are in Christ. This is the truth that sets us free. Not a religion of failed promises, but a living, breathing reality.
Picture attribution
Herrel, Edie Mae. Sacred Spaces and Places, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://act.library.vanderbilt.edu/artworks/59851 [retrieved October 31, 2026]. Original source: Image was donated by Edie Mae Herrel and Dan Herrel, dkherrel@hotmail.com, nancynuss@gmail.com, Patrick.herrel@hotmail.com.
