Praying

In 1959 when I was ten years old, my family attended Maple View Baptist church in Joppa, MD.  I can still remember the saints of God praying at Wednesday night prayer meeting.  I would peek and watch them as they talked with the Lord.  Most of them knelt beside their folding chair seat and I could see them as they met with the dear Lord.  I watched them with one eye and my father with the other eye … squinting and almost closed lest he see me.  As they prayed, some seemed to knit their brow with thumb and one finger.  Others would use two fingers and the thumb.  Others yet would have all four fingers opposite the thumb.  One used a fist on his forehead.  I distinctly remember thinking, “When I grow up, I will use the two-finger and thumb position when I pray.”  Such were the thoughts of a ten-year-old boy.  The Lord told Samuel not to base his decision on the outside, “… for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” I Samuel 16:7  Hey, God doesn’t care which position our hand is in; God is concerned with our heart.  
Here’s an old song by Carroll Roberson entitled, “How About Your Heart?”
 

How about your heart?
Is it right with God?
Would you ask Christ in today?
Is it black with sin?
Or is it pure within?
Would you ask Christ in to stay?

People often see you
As you are outside
Jesus really knows you
For he sees inside
How about your heart?
Is it right with God?
That's the thing that count today

Friend how would you feel
If your heart were made
With a window on each side?
So that all could see
Not just outward charm
But detect if inward harm?