Behind Martin Luther King Jr., a Public and Private Prayer Life

Behind Martin Luther King Jr., a Public and Private Prayer Life- Beliefnet.com


This is a beautiful article. Thank you. Dr. King and his prayer life: It is BECAUSE he exercised a public and private prayer life that Dr. King could maintain the focus to do the things he knew he was called out to do. Prayer plays a big part in God's revelations to us about ourselves; on the other hand, he reveals others to us and us to them, as he wills, for his own purposes. Those who pray and know they are connected to God are really fearless. Fear and prayer are not compatible. Fearfulness is one of the abominations listed in Revelation where it says that type won't enter the kingdom.

Were Dr. King not a reverently prayerful man, I believe he would not have been able to maintain his inner and outer composure unceasingly, take care of his family all the time, love his friends and his enemies simultaneously, face death threats and still act as though he had not even heard of them, lead a multitude of different personalities - many of whom did not know each other; meld different races and ethnicities, different religious affiliations, different economic backgrounds, etc., and yield them to God's intent as one coherent whole, with one focus, one love, believing in one faith (human equality) even though many faiths came together in power - of overcoming much evil in high places. And the work goes on.


No one can maintain that one-pointed ninja faith in something unless he has an inner guide talking with him on a personal level, one on whom he could lean while looking perfectly composed to others. I always felt he was one of the most unpretentiously humble-looking men (including my teacher, and the Mahatma) that I had ever seen, All of them gave me the same feeling - that they were real. (Mind you, the Mahatma died a year before I was born.)


I really believe that every true and dedicated soul will have a deep prayer life. Every well needs to be full of water, or else it is chokingly dry, it's got no source to draw from. Dr. King knew God was his Wellspring, from which he drew all he ever needed. In those times I feel he might have sense death walking with him daily, but they both knew death could not touch him until he was finished. I can imagine those thoughts helped to shape his prayers to the Source of his strength, and therefore he was prayerfully not afraid.