Prayer - Part 1
Like putting on your shoes in the morning, so prayer is an essential part of our Christian lives, and if we are honest, a part we only utilize mostly when it suits us- and that is a shame. Over the next few weeks I am going to be writing and reflecting upon Prayer. I invite you to engage in this discipline as a means to change your life. Prayer will absolutely change you if you let it.
Prayer is a native, natural thing. It is part of who we are and it is part of what we are called to become. Many volumes have been written about prayer but for our purposes here, I am only going to touch on some aspects of prayer to get you started thinking and reflecting. If you are looking for more resources on the subject I invite you to stop by my office and we can talk in more detail about what you are looking for.
To start with I want to share with you the advice I found a number of years ago when I started trying to become a student of prayer. This one sentence has challenged and spurred me to pray when I did not think I could. Even when I did not know how or what to pray for, I remembered this and I tried anyway. “Pray as you can, not as you can’t.”
Prayer is not like learning a skill or becoming fluent with a tool or device. It is not something which can be mastered the more we practice it like the piano. Prayer is an organic, human response to life, in all its forms. It just wells up in us waiting to be released. Certainly we pray in the moments of tragedy or pain. We pray when we need God. Many people pray before meals and bed. But there are many other opportunities to pray that are present in our lives. We just need to seek those moments and begin to speak to God honestly in them.
C.S. Lewis tells us to, “lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.[1]” God already knows we are full of sin and even in our prayers we seek things not for His glory alone, but for our preservation and for our glory. That’s ok…for now. Just begin by speaking to God in honesty. Let the words which live in you flow from you to Him.
Do not begin working to deepen your prayer life by expecting to pray for hours and hours. Do not expect to have all the mysteries of life and faith revealed to you because you pray.
No, just speak to God about what is happening in your mind in that moment, wherever it is, and however it takes shape. Forget the wording. God is not interested in fancy-worded prayers that make you sound important. Authenticity. That is the word to remember when beginning to pray. Be authentic with God. Be honest with Him.
I find that I have plenty of time to pray in the morning getting ready for the day. As I eat, bathe, help Jennifer gets the kids ready for school, even when taking the dog out for the morning. I find that I have the chance to be attentive to the small voice in my soul which speaks to God if I give it the necessary opportunity to speak.
I can pray about the morning commute of the people I worship with each week asking God to keep them safe as they travel. I can thank God for the sunrise I am watching as I chase our dog across the yard. Thursday, as I was preparing write these words, I was amazed how blue the sky got- in light of all the rain we received earlier in the week- so I told God about how amazing it was to me.
Certainly God already knew how blue the sky was. After all, He created it. I just took a moment to pray and thank him for it. Spend this time as you begin to pray in a simple, honest, authentic moment of prayer as often as you are able, speaking to God. Then we will see where it takes us.
[1] C.S. Lewis. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (New York: Harcourt , Brace, & World, 1964), p. 22.
Prayer is a native, natural thing. It is part of who we are and it is part of what we are called to become. Many volumes have been written about prayer but for our purposes here, I am only going to touch on some aspects of prayer to get you started thinking and reflecting. If you are looking for more resources on the subject I invite you to stop by my office and we can talk in more detail about what you are looking for.
To start with I want to share with you the advice I found a number of years ago when I started trying to become a student of prayer. This one sentence has challenged and spurred me to pray when I did not think I could. Even when I did not know how or what to pray for, I remembered this and I tried anyway. “Pray as you can, not as you can’t.”
Prayer is not like learning a skill or becoming fluent with a tool or device. It is not something which can be mastered the more we practice it like the piano. Prayer is an organic, human response to life, in all its forms. It just wells up in us waiting to be released. Certainly we pray in the moments of tragedy or pain. We pray when we need God. Many people pray before meals and bed. But there are many other opportunities to pray that are present in our lives. We just need to seek those moments and begin to speak to God honestly in them.
C.S. Lewis tells us to, “lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.[1]” God already knows we are full of sin and even in our prayers we seek things not for His glory alone, but for our preservation and for our glory. That’s ok…for now. Just begin by speaking to God in honesty. Let the words which live in you flow from you to Him.
Do not begin working to deepen your prayer life by expecting to pray for hours and hours. Do not expect to have all the mysteries of life and faith revealed to you because you pray.
No, just speak to God about what is happening in your mind in that moment, wherever it is, and however it takes shape. Forget the wording. God is not interested in fancy-worded prayers that make you sound important. Authenticity. That is the word to remember when beginning to pray. Be authentic with God. Be honest with Him.
I find that I have plenty of time to pray in the morning getting ready for the day. As I eat, bathe, help Jennifer gets the kids ready for school, even when taking the dog out for the morning. I find that I have the chance to be attentive to the small voice in my soul which speaks to God if I give it the necessary opportunity to speak.
I can pray about the morning commute of the people I worship with each week asking God to keep them safe as they travel. I can thank God for the sunrise I am watching as I chase our dog across the yard. Thursday, as I was preparing write these words, I was amazed how blue the sky got- in light of all the rain we received earlier in the week- so I told God about how amazing it was to me.
Certainly God already knew how blue the sky was. After all, He created it. I just took a moment to pray and thank him for it. Spend this time as you begin to pray in a simple, honest, authentic moment of prayer as often as you are able, speaking to God. Then we will see where it takes us.
[1] C.S. Lewis. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (New York: Harcourt , Brace, & World, 1964), p. 22.
