Actor Mark Wahlberg recently sat down for an interview with the "Today" show in America and shared the details behind his prayer life and why he is so outspoken about his faith.
Speaking to the NBC host Harry Smith, Catholic Wahlberg said: "I will not hide the fact that I love the Lord and I want to be committed to serving the Lord, but I also don't jam it down anybody's throat. But it's better to never have known God than to deny God. I mean, that's not a good look. That's not a good look," Wahlberg noted.
The Hollywood star spoke openly about his daily prayer life and devotional practices while promoting his new Netflix movie, Spenser Confidential, he said: "That's the most important thing. I take a day off, I take two days a week off from the gym now. I don't take a day off from getting on my hands and my knees and reading my prayer book and my daily devotionals and, first of all, expressing the gratitude that I have for all the blessings that have been bestowed upon me," Wahlberg told "Today" on Monday about his spiritual discipline.
"And then, of course, asking for the strength and guidance to be able to use the talents and gifts that God's given me to help others and inspire and know what right is and to do so ... to be the best husband I can be, best father I can be," he added.
When describing how much time he puts into his prayer life, Wahlberg shared that it depends on how long his prayer list is.
"I meet people along the way, and I add people to my prayers. If I see somebody in public eye, or that I read in the newspaper somebody that's struggling, somebody that has a child that's having a health issue, stuff like that, I add them to my prayers, and I usually ended up keeping them in my prayers," he explained. "So it's now 20 minutes of praying, actual praying, and then my reading and stuff like that."
Wahlberg spoke about passages in the Bible that really impact him, he talked about Matthew 13: "The idea of being good soil and bearing good fruit, where it's sprinkled, how it's used, how you absorb that information. Do you really retain that information?" Wahlberg said. "Yeah. Those are the more powerful things."
He told host Smith that his relationship with God impacts his everyday life and he said he doesn't force it on anyone, from his children to fellow Hollywood actors, but he said people are interested and he openly shares his faith with them, "…there are people that I'm close to that I will send devotionals to and try to encourage them."