On the Journey
By Rick Hamlin

September 2010

  • 10 Daily Prayers from the Psalms

    My daily prayers I find in the Psalms, turning to them every morning. They are a feast of the power of prayer with examples of forgiveness prayer, friendship prayer, healing prayer, answered and unanswered prayer in the richest language. 

    Sometimes what helps me most is to concentrate on one verse. I close my eyes and repeat the phrase, letting the spirit move through me.  

    “Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.” (Psalm 17:8)

    “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1)

  • When We Promise to Pray, We Should Do It!

    One of those things we care a lot about here at Guideposts is praying for others.

  • Five Christian Prayers for Bedtime

    Do you have a bedtime prayer? Throughout my childhood I said the one below (and the words are probably my own variation on the original). Here some other bedtime prayers to make for a good, peaceful sleep.

    Jesus, tender shepherd, hear me,
    Bless this little lamb tonight.
    Through the darkness be down near me,
    Keep me safe till morning light.
    —Mary Duncan

  • Daily Bible Verses: Following the Word

    “Give to everyone who begs from you…” Luke 6:30. There are some daily Bible verses I read and I wonder, “How am I ever going to do that?” Can’t I get some special dispensation?

    This one popped up on my computer and I thought, “Okay, let me try.” That evening as I rushed to choir rehearsal, I passed a beggar sitting on the floor of the subway station. An older man with a cap on ground. Not a cent in it. “Try, Rick, just try,” I told myself. I dug into my pocket. “What do you need?” I asked the guy tentatively.

  • Five Classic Christian Prayers

    Not for nothing are these five prayers considered classics. They’ve been sung, prayed, memorized, memorialized, anthologized, read, pondered over and treasured for centuries. 

  • Where Do You Pray?

    There’s a long wooden table that’s been a home for my prayers for over 25 years now. It’s in our conference room at Guideposts and on Monday mornings a group of us in the New York office gather around it and read prayer requests sent  in from the web and by mail. 

  • Prayer on the Syllabus: Faith and Education Can Work Together

    Worried about what happens to your kids’ faith when away at college? My youngest is back in school and I’m not fretting about his spiritual growth even if he is on an “anything goes” sort of campus that forgot its church affiliation years ago.

    First of all, there’s always exam time. Face the experience of a really grueling final in something like orgo chemistry—for me it was economics—and you’ll discover prayer. Real fast. 

  • Get Into the Prayer Habit: Start With Our 30 Days of Prayer

    Prayer is a habit. It’s a little like running, like going to bed at a reasonable hour, like eating decently, like remembering to write a thank you note, like saying something kind when that wasn’t really your first thought.

    It’s funny, when we talk about habit-forming stuff, we usually mention the bad things—bad habits like cigarette-smoking, driving too fast, chewing with your mouth open, interrupting people, swearing. But the easiest way for me to get rid of one of those is to inculcate a good habit. Like prayer.

Rick Hamlin is the executive editor of Guideposts magazine. His regular prayer habit is a psalm a day and some meditation on his commute to work, which happens to be a New York subway train.