Prayer Study Part 6

What is Formation Prayer?
•A process of transformation in which our lives increasingly mirror the Son’s
•Formation prayer begins when our simple prayers are not answered in the way we expect
•We begin a process of change called conversatio morum or death of the status quo

•Prayer is only one element in the process of Christian formation
•Formation prayer is both an active and passive process
•We are both pursuing God and being pursued by God

Model One-- The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola
•Week 1–Contemplate our sins in the light of the love of Christ
•Week 2—Focus on the life of Christ and earnestly seek to conform our lives to his
•Week 3—Contemplate the passion of Christ and seek to die to our own idolatries
•Week 4—Contemplate the resurrection of Christ and seek the power of the Spirit to live our lives in conformity with Christ’s

Model Two—St. Benedict’s Rule
•Composed of 12 steps toward humility
•“Humility means to live as close to the truth as possible”
•Reverence God in daily life
•Confess any sinful thought or action to God
•Do God’s will instead of our own
•Cultivate silence in place of idle speech
•Use plain, simple speech
•Endure “with patience the injuries and afflictions we face”
•“Be content in all things”

Model Three--The Little Way
•Based on the approach of St. Therese of Lisieux
•“To seek out the menial job, to welcome unjust criticisms, to befriend those who annoy us, to help those who are ungrateful”
•A way of life that anyone can engage in everyday

Solitude
•Will be viewed by others as selfish and slothful
•We learn to let go of the opinions of others
•Our true self is unmasked
•“Solitude gives us the power not to win the rat race but to ignore the rat race altogether.”
Other Ways to do Formation Prayer
•Contemplate our own death
•Brings humility
•Best done in light of Gal. 2:19—what does it mean to be crucified with Christ?
•Practice the prayer of docility
•Surrender ourselves to the hands of God, the potter
•A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench. Isaiah 42:3

Prayer Study- Part 5- Prayer of Relinquishment

The Spirit teaches me to yield my will entirely to the will of the Father. He opens my ear to wait in great gentleness and teachableness of soul for what the Father has day by day to speak and to teach. He discovers to me how union with God’s will is union with God Himself; how entire surrender to God’s will is the Father’s claim, the Son’s example, and the true blessedness of the soul.
Andrew Murray


• At some point Christians move from a childish, demanding prayer to relinquishment
• Like falling into the arms of Jesus in total trust (e.g. tea commercial)
• End result of this prayer brings us into soul satisfying rest

The School of Gethsemane

• Jesus’ prayer in the garden reflects both his desire that the cup pass and relinquishment that God’s will be done Luke 22:39-46. “Can people be redeemed in any other way?” “No”
• In the way of relinquishment, “My will be done” is subsumed by “not my will”
• My will my way must yield to higher authority

The Process of Relinquishment
• Struggle is an intimate part of relinquishment
• Abraham relinquished Isaac and with him the Promise itself
• Paul relinquished his desire for greater health (more)
• Relinquishment is not resignation. Christin prayer not fatlism
• We are not locked into a preset, determinist future. Dialogue with God.
• Severing the precious roots. Release with hope and trust in the character of God
• Sometimes what we relinquish may be returned to us
• Sometimes what we relinquish needs to die so that God can accomplish his purposes through us. Settled peace (p53)
• Crucifixtion of the will.
• I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal. 2:19b-20
• “God creates everything out of nothing—and everything which God is to use he first reduces to nothing.” Kierkegaard
• “Crucifixion always has resurrection tied to it. God is not destroying the will but transforming it so that over a process of time and experience we can freely will what God wills.”
• A.W. Tozar ..freedom from the self-sins: self sufficiency, self-pity, self-absorption, sel-abuse, self-indulgence, self-deprecation (more)

Practicing the Prayer of Relinquishment
• Begin with the prayer of kenosis (self-emptying) in Philippians 2:5-11
• Practice the prayer of surrender asking Jesus to interpret “not my will” for your life
• Practice the prayer of abandonment –into God’s hands
• Practice the prayer of release, placing all that you hold dear into the Father’s care as well as your enemies, anger, fears and thoughts of retaliation
• Practice the prayer of resurrection, asking God to restore whatever would advance the kingdom of God

Prayer Study Part 4-Prayer of Tears

Continuing with our study begun a few weeks ago, of Richard Foster's book, "Prayer-Finding the Hearts True Home." The book examines a number of different types of prayer.


Tears are like blood in the wounds of the soul.
Gregory of NyssaPenthos-

• A broken and contrite heart
• Inward godly sorrow
• Holy sorrow
• The prayer of tears
• Keenly felt sorrow over our sin and distance from God

The Experience of Our Forebears

• Early American missionary David Brainard wrote of his tearful repentance in his journal
• O that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people! Jer. 9:1
• I am weary with my moaning every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. Psalm 6:6
• Others pp 38-39

An Experience of Joy

• The “charism of tears”
• In earlier times, those with dry eyes and cold hearts were pitied
• Contrition and repentance is accompanied by deep joy in our relationship to God

What the Prayer of Tears Does

• God wishes to touch all aspects of our lives, including our emotions
• Tears are an indication that God has reached us emotionally
• Because we are sinners and separated from God (original sin), the prayer of tears aids us in acknowledging this
• Martin Luther recommended living a life of daily repentance
• Death and resurrection of Jesus Christ makes this type of repentance possible

Elements of Contrition

• Seek repentance as a gift from God– Jesus prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
• Confess
• Receive God’s gift of forgiveness
• Obey- Obedience not just avoidance of wrongdoing, but the pursuit of virtue

When We Cannot Weep

• Be both firm and friendly with yourself. Don’t let yourself off with “I’m not the emotional type.”
• “I am a rock I am an island” mentality was not taken on overnight nor will it be overcome overnight
• Shed tears inwardly
“The fire of sin is intense, but it is put out by a small amount of tears, for the tear puts out a furnace of faults, and cleans our wounds of sin.”John Chrysostom

Prayer Study Part 3

Notes on Richard Foster's book - Prayer.
The book we are studying in my sunday School class.

The Prayer of Examen

Examen- Similar to examination without the academic context. From Latin and refers to the tongue or weight indicator on a balance scale, conveying the idea of an accurate assessment of the true situation.

Lost to most modern church services.

Biblical examples e.g. Psalms “Yahweh, you examine me and know me” (Ps 139:1) King David (1 Chron 28:9) Paul (1 Cor 2:10)

The examen of God is something of immeasurable strength and empowerment.

What is It?

Like two sides of a door it has two aspects.

Examen of Consciousness – How God has been present to us throughout the day and how we have responded

Examen of Conscience- Where we discover the areas that need cleansing, purifying and healing

• 
  Examen of Consciousness- The Remembrance of Love
  
  Prayerful reflection on the thoughts, feelings and actions of our days to see how God has been at work among us and how we have responded (e.g. was the boisterous neighbor merely a rude interruption that ruined a quiet evening or was it the voice of God urging us to be attentive to the pain and loneliness of those around us.)
  
  The examen of consciousness is the means God uses to make us more aware of our surroundings.
  
  There is nothing complicated or unusual here, only that God seeks to be where we are and for us to see and hear what is around us and through it all to discern the footprints of the Holy.
  
  It is one way to recall the mighty deeds of God. For us to remember. Scripture is filled with such examples: remember the covenant God made with Abraham, remember how he delivered us from Egypt, remember the Ten Commandments…remember, remember remember. Remember Calvalry.
  
  The examen of consciousness allows us to raise our own Ebenezer (1 Sam 7:12) and declaring, “Here is where God met me and helped me.” We are remembering.
  
  Examen of Conscience- The Scrutiny of Love
  
  We invite God to to search our hearts to the depths. Psalmist, “Search me oh God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts…(Ps 139:23-24)
  
  We ask to see what is truly in us, without apology or defense and God goes with us. The purpose of this journey is for our good and for our healing.
  
  

God goes with us:

• If we are the lone examiners we will justify and rationalize to declare our innocence. We will “call evil good and good evil,” (Isa 5:20)
  Since God is with us we are listening more and defending less. He will show us what we need to see and when we need to see it.
  
• Self-flagellation. Left on our own it is easy to think of ourselves as unredeemable. With God along side, we are protected and comforted. God knows that too much introspection can do more harm than good and He will never show us more than we can handle.
  
  Madam Guyon (French mystic 17th century) “If the examen is solely a self-examination, we will always end up with excessive praise or blame. But under the searchlight of the great Physician we can expect only good always.”
  
  It is not without pain but can be likened to a purifying fire and we can welcome its cleansing.
  
  
  The Purpose of the Examen-
  
  It produces within us the priceless gift of self-knowledge. A gift modern man has not found particularly useful, though even the pagans knew its worth: “Know thyself.” – Socrates
  
  “Along this path of prayer, self knowledge and the thought of one’s sins is the bread
  with which all palates must be fed no matter how delicate they may be; they cannot be
  sustained without this bread.” Teresa of Avila
  
  Paul, urges us to offer our bodies, our very selves as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1). This offering cannot be made in some abstract way with pious words or religious acts. No, it must be rooted in the acceptance of the concrete details of who we are and the way we live. We must come to accept and even honor our creatureliness. The offering of ourselves can only be the offering of our lived experience, because this alone is who we are. And who we are not who we want to be is the only offering we have to give. We give God therefore not just our strengths but also our weaknesses, not just our giftedness but also our brokenness. Our duplicity, our lust, our narcissism, our sloth all are laid on the altar of sacrifice..
  
  We must not deny or ignore the depth of our evil, even the truth about our shadow side sets us free (John 8:32)
  
  
  How To Practice the Prayer of Examen
  
  Turn inward, not to become more introspective, or to find within some inner strength or an inner savior. Vain search!
  
  This journey inward does not stop within ourselves, but drives us through ourselves to find God. These are ideas and not a a perfect fit for everyone. There are other ways not mentioned. If you have an idea and would like to share it please do.
  
• Keeping a spiritual journal
• Meditating on the Ten Commandments or the Lord’s Prayer

Prayer Study-Part 2

Chapter 2

Prayer of the Forsaken

To come to the pleasure you have not you must go by a way in which you enjoy not. –St John of the Cross

My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matt 27:46b)

Times of seeming desertion and absence and abandonment appear to be universal among those who have walked this path of faith before us.
Sooner or later we will know hat it is like to feel forsaken by God.

Sometimes it just seems that God is hidden from us., like “we are beating on Heaven’s door with bruised knuckles in the dark.” (George Buttrick)

When we speak of the absence of God we do not speak of actual absence but rather a sense of absence. God is with us always but at times he withdraws from our consciousness of his presence.

We question, we doubt, we struggle. We feel abandoned by friends, spouse and God. We pray and the words echo in a hollow shell, we turn to the bible and the words swim before us. Music fails to inspire and Christian fellowship is filled with egoism, backbiting and selfishness.

The biblical metaphor is the desert; dry, barren parched. “I call all day, my God and you never answer.” Ps 22:2)

What good can we say?

Encouragement –
Many have come this way before us: Moses, Psalmist, Elijah, Jeremiah lowered into the well, Mary alone on Golgotha. “My God, why…why…why?”
Saint John of the Cross- named it the dark night of the soul. An anonymous
English writer described it as “the cloud of unknowing”. Jean-Pierre de Caussade
“the dark night of faith.” George Fox, “When it was day I wished of r night and
when it was night I wished for day.” (P18-19)
We are in good company.

It does not mean that God is displeased with you or that you have committed some offense against God or there is something wrong with you
Darkness is a definite experience of prayer. It should be expected, even embraced.

Every experience is unique to the individual. It does not occur on any timetable but God’s. We may enter these dark canyons and barren places at any number of points on our journey. We do not move from set stage to set stage . if we did we would not be in a living relationship but rather in a mechanical one.

In prayer we are entering into a living relationship that begins and develops in mutual freedom. God gives us freedom because he seeks creatures who freely seek his love and relationship. We must learn to give God the same freedom. Though unlike us He will never abandon.

a. If we could make God appear at our beck and call we would not be worshipping the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. We would be worshipping an object, an idol.

Like Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, god is wild and free and comes at will. By refusing to be a puppet on our string or a genie in our bottle God is freeing us from our false idolatrous images.

b. Besides we might not be able to endure such a command performance. e.g. Exod 20:39 “Do not let God speak to us or we will die.”


Have you been there? The death of a spouse or child, a crisis I marriage or vocation or a failure in business. Or just a simple slipping away from the warm glow of intimate communion.

St John of the Cross says two purifications occur during the dark night of the soul.

1. Stripping us of dependence on external results.
a. Less impressed with the religion of the “big deal”- buildings, productions, budgets, miracles. Neither praise or adulation (kind and gracious remarks) Though nothing is wrong with them THEY are no longer what impresses. Or moves us.
b. Likewise liturgical practices, sacramental symbols, prayer aids, books on self fulfillment, private devotional exercises. Though nothing is wrong with them THEY are no longer what fascinate us.
c. We become less in control of our destiny e.g. Peter in John 21:18-19. The realization that I can not conquer God , but God will conquer me

2. Stripping us of dependence on internal results.
a. Most disturbing and painful for we we begin to wonder, not if we believe in God but what kind of God we believe in. Faith hope and love become subject to doubt. Our own motivations become suspect. P 22 (is prayer a psychological trick, does the universe have meaning, does God really love me)
b. God is producing detachment, humility, patience, perseverance.
Our thirst can lead to the habit of prayer. Can because it can also lead us to give up


What to do during the desert times

Prayer of Complaint- Praying the Lament Psalms. They teach us to pray our inner conflicts and contradictions. They give us permission to shake our fist at God in one moment and praise him the next.

Short Darts of Longing Prayer bet upon the cloud of unknowing “with a short dart of longing love.

We may not see the end from the beginning, but we can keep on doing what we know to do: pray, listen, worship, carry out the duty of the moment.

What we learned to do in the light we do in the dark. Constant longing love produces a firmness of life orientation. We love God more than the gifts God brings. Like Job, we serve God even if he slays us. (see also Mary Luke 1:38)

How to Wait

Trust precedes faith.
Trust in the character of God.
“I do not understand what God is doing or even where God is, but I know that he is out there to do me good.” That is trust. That is how to wait.

“O my god, deep calls unto deep (Ps 42:7). The deep of my profound misery calls to the deep of your infinite mercy.”- Bernard of Clairvaux

Prayer-
God, Where re You!? What have I done to make you hide from me? Are you playing cat and mouse with me, or are your purposes larger than my perceptions? I feel alone, lost, forsaken.

Your are not the God who majors in revealing yourself. You showed yourself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When Moses asked to know what you looked liked you obliged him. Why them and not me?

I am tired of praying. I am tired of asking. I am tired of waiting. But I will keep on praying and asking and waiting because I have nowhere else to go.

Jesus, you too, knew the loneliness of the desert and the isolation of the cross. And it is through your forsaken prayer that I speak these words- amen

Prayer for the Day

H/T STR from a new book, The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Save me entirely from sin.
I know I am righteous through the righteousness of another,
But I pant and pine for likeness to Thyself;

I am Thy child and should bear Thy image,
Enable me to recognize my death unto sin;When it tempts me may I be deaf unto its voice.
Deliver me from the invasion as well as the dominion of sin.
Grant me to walk as Christ walked,
To live in the newness of His life,
The life of love, the life of faith, the life of holiness.

I abhor my body of death,
Its indolence, envy, meanness, pride.
Forgive, and kill these vices,
Have mercy on my unbelief, on my corrupt and wandering heart.

When Thy blessings come I begin to idolize them,
And set my affection on some beloved object –
Children, friend, wealth, honour;
Clean this spiritual adultery and give me chastity;
Close my heart to all but Thee.

Sin is my greatest curse;
Let Thy victory be apparent to my consciousness,
And displayed in my life.
Help me to be always devoted, confident, obedient,
Resigned, childlike in my trust of Thee,
To love Thee with soul, body, mind, strength,
To love my fellow-man as I love myself,
To be saved from unregenerate temper, hard thoughts,
Slanderous words, meanness, unkind manner,
To master my tongue and keep the door of my lips.

Fill me with grace daily,
That my life be a fountain of sweet water.

Prayer Study

Prayer was to be a focus for me in the New Year. It was to be the focus of my church and the Sunday School class I teach. I even started this blog back in January that would focus on the subject. The last post on the blog was February 7 right before I started my various hospital/doctor visits.

I have found that when I am tired or sick my formal prayer times dwindle. I still prayed, like when I was placed in a quiet room the back of the ER at about 1 in the morning and was overcome with a very real sense I was dying. I prayed that I wouldn't die that way, at that time, in that place, knowing full well I had no say in the matter. I realized I wasn't really prepared to die and we all, as Christians, should be prepared everyday to do just that. For I think it is in being prepared to die (and knowing that you can't kill us) allows us to live life in ways that otherwise would not be possible. (that whole loving your enemy thing and loving God with all strength, heart and mind) But that is another post.

Something akin to this train of thought was written over at STR some time ago and is worth a read.

We have begun reading Richard Foster's "Prayer" in our Sunday School. I thought I would share some of his thoughts in the notes I've taken for the class:

True prayer is nothing but love. – St Augustine

God aches over our distance and preoccupation and mourns that we do not draw near to Him. He grieves that we have forgotten him. He weeps over our obsession with muchness and manyness. He longs for our presence.He is inviting us to come home.

Regardless of our situation- the Father’s heart is open wide and you are welcome to come in.

Loving is the syntax of prayer.

The first prayer Foster talks about is called "Simple Prayer."

To pray is to change. But the movement is first inward to protect us from being overwhelmed by God’s glory.

Simple Prayer- the prayer of beginning again

We yearn and hide from prayer.Our busyness is a smoke screen as we are never to busy to eat or sleep or making love.

There are a number of “somethings” keeping us from praying.

First is the notion that things must be just right, that our lives require fine tuning before we can really pray.We all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives- altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter.This side of heaven we will never have pure enough motives, or be good enough or know enough to pray rightly. It is in the very act of prayer that these things are addressed in due time.

In Simple prayer we bring ourselves before God, warts and all. In a very real sense Simple Prayer is about us. We are the focus- our wants, needs and concerns.

The most common form of prayer in the Bible. Examples of these are Moses complaining and Elisha retaliating against the children who jeered. But in the midst of these self-centered prayers something more arises.

Simple prayer is beginning prayer. It is daily bread. It is daily needs and we will never outgrow it.

When we pray...the real condition of our heart is revealed. This is when God truly begins to work with us.

Action

To believe that God can reach is and bless us in the ordinary junctures of daily life is the stuff of prayer.

Frustration anger and tears are also the language of Simple Prayer.

“Lay before Him what is in us. Not what ought to be in us..” C.S. Lewis

The details of our lives matter to God.

Carry on an ongoing conversation with God about the daily stuff of life ala “Fiddler on the Roof.

1. Only one thing is required- Love
2. Never be discouraged by our lack of prayer- “The desire for prayer, is prayer….” Desire leads to practice and practice will increase desire. Give even our lack of prayer to God.
3.Let go of trying too hard to pray lest you get spiritual indigestion. Beware “spiritual greed.” i.e. wanting more of God than can be properly digested.
4.Learn to pray even while we are dwelling on evil. The Lord loves us perhaps most of all-when we fail and try again.
5.In the beginning strive for uneventful prayer experiences

Dangers

Self-centered, narcissistic, selfishness. Rationalization and manipulation of our experiences so that we hear only what we want to hear. Self consumed we may lose sight of God altogether and worshipping “the creature rather than the Creator”.


Did you read #4? "Learn to pray even while dwelling on evil". That is an incredibly powerful realization is it not? That we can pray in that state? But it is very difficult to do and in fact most of us avoid all contact with God in those moments and those that follow, because we do not feel worthy, when in fact, it is precisley at those times when we should be praying all the more.
I am reminded of a sermon by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in which he prays:


Lord Jesus, come yourself, and dwell with us, behuman as we are, and overcome what overwhelms us.Come into the midst of my evil, come close to myunfaithfulness. Share my sin, which I hate and which Icannot leave. Be my brother, Thou Holy God. Be mybrother in the kingdom of evil and suffering and death.Come with me in my death, come with me in my suffering,come with me as I struggle with evil. And make meholy and pure, despite my sin and death. (Advent Sermon Barcelona 1928)

So I'd like to invite you to come along and join my Sunday School class in reading this book on prayer. I'll post notes as we go along much as we did the Advent Study. May our love of God be increased and our prayer life be enriched by the power of the Holy Spirit as we take this journey.

Lord, Teach Us to Pray

From CT:

THIS, THEN, is how you should pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name."Matthew 6:9

THIS PRAYER is a pattern for all Christian praying; Jesus is teaching that prayer will be acceptable when, and only when, the attitudes, thoughts, and desires expressed fit the pattern. That is to say: every prayer of ours should be a praying of the Lord's Prayer in some shape or form.J. I. Packer, Growing in Christ

AND MAKE US WORTHY, O Lord, that we joyously and without presumption may make bold to invoke Thee, the heavenly God, as Father, and to say: "Our Father …"Eastern Orthodox Introduction to the Recitation of the Lord's Prayer

[GOD] ALONE is worthy, but he can make us worthy too. That, too, is what "our Father" means: The grace of God conscripts us both as receivers and givers of forgiveness.
Telford Work, Ain't Too Proud to Beg

ALL BELIEVERS are sons of the Father and brothers of one another, regardless of their race, nationality, education, money, or any other difference. And it is high time that the followers of Jesus Christ either faced up to this truth or quit repeating this prayer.
Clarence Jordan, Sermon on the Mount (revised edition)

THAT WE PRAY to God in heaven is a reminder that we become part of a large struggle by praying this prayer. The thing between us and Jesus is not merely personal; it's cosmic. The God whom we have been taught by Jesus to address as "our Father" is the one who rules the whole cosmos, who speaks in earthquake, wind, and fire. Any less of a god wouldn't do us much good.
William H. Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas, Lord Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life

HEAVEN, biblically, means the realm where God rules fully and God's will is done. Jesus is affirming that God really is the Ruler, and that God really is our Father, present, bringing deliverance into our lives.
Glen H. Stassen, Living the Sermon on the Mount

HOW does [God's name] become holy among us? The plainest answer is: When both our teaching and our life are godly and Christian. Since in this prayer we call God our Father, it is our duty in every way to behave as good children so that he may receive from us not shame but honor and praise.
Martin Luther, Large Catechism

PRAYING without ceasing, "hallowed be your name," I ask for God's grace that we may continue together to learn to see and respond with wonder, gratitude, and love to God's holy beauty not only in our own lives, but in the life of every human being who bears it.Roberta C. Bondi, A Place to Pray

Quote of the Day

"Above all, you must remember that you are made for God, and that it is your duty to live for Him, because He has created, redeemed, and called you; whence it follows that you must abstain not only from every bad action, but also from indifferent or useless ones. [...] You must zealously strive to let every interior or exterior act proceed from virtue, so that you may draw ever nearer to God."-St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591); patron of this blog

Slow Blogging and Prayer Time

Some early thoughts on my New Years Resolution...

Slow Blogging and Prayer Time

Focus/Study For the New Year

This is where this whole idea began...
Focus/Study For the New Year

A.C.T.S.

From the Prayer Guide:

One structure for prayer is given by the acronym "ACTS", representing adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication (or intercession.) This is one order, where we start off focusing on who God is, and praising him for that. Others find a CATS pattern helpful, beginning by clearing out of the way the things that sadden God in our lives, before we can go onto praise him. Let's look briefly at each in turn :

Adoration is to adore God, to worship him and to fulfil the commandment to love him with all of our heart, mind and soul. As we spend time in adoration, we praise God for who He is - our Creator, our Sustainer and our Redeemer. (more about praise and adoration.)

Confession allows us to clear away the things in the relationship between you and God which are displeasing to Him. All of us have sinned. St John writes in his epistle "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (I Jn 1:8,9) (more about confession.)

Thanksgiving. From childhood we are brought up to say "Thank You" when someone does something for us, or gives us a gift. Each moment God is blessing us, every minute we can recall the wonderful things that God has done for us, and the gifts that we have been given. And so, we need to be constantly thanking God for his blessings. In writing to Timothy, Paul makes it clear that we also need to be giving thanks for everyday, worldly things " I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." 1 Tim 2:1. (more about thanksgiving.)

Supplication or Intercession. Finally we come to ask God for our needs and the needs of others. There are many demands on our prayer time - many topics and issues that we could pray for, so we need to choose, and to be specific. (more about topics to pray for)

Pray for others. In the epistles of St Paul, we read of him praying for those he has led to faith, and asking them also to pray for him. So, you too can pray for other Christians, and encourage them to pray for you. Pray for your familiy members, and for neighbours and friends. It's also good to pray for those who don't know Jesus to come to faith - many Christians have come to believe in Christ through the prayers of others.

Pray for world issues : for peace in difficult situations, for leaders and those in influential positions, for global issues such as care of God's environment, justice for the poor, relief of suffering in less developed countries, and other issues that come to you.

Pray for your own needs too. It's easy to neglect this, but Jesus encourages us to do so in the Lord's Prayer - the model for prayer that He gave us.

Wesley's Mother's Definition of Sin

"Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself." -- Susanna Wesley (Letter, June 8, 1725)


The best definition I ever heard, and I don't recall it's author, is this:

However else it manifests itself, sin is ultimately self-centeredness

John Wesley's Self Examination Questions

Here is one set of nearly two dozen questions similar to what John Wesley gave to members of hisdiscipleship groups more than 200 years ago.The questions have their origin in the spiritual accountability group started by Wesley when he was a student at Oxford -- a group that detractors called "The Holy Club." The first list appeared about 1729 or 1730 in the preface to Wesley's second Oxford Diary. Similar questions appeared in his 1733 A Collection of Forms of Prayer for Every Day in the Week. As late as 1781, Wesley published a list of questions like this in the Arminian Magazine.

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I relly am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
   
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
   
3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
   
4. Can I be trusted?
   
5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
   
6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
   
7. Did the Bible live in me today?
   
8. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
   
9. Am I enjoying prayer?
   
10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
    
11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
    
12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
    
13. Do I disobey God in anything?
    
14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
    
15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
    
16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
    
17. How do I spend my spare time?
    
18. Am I proud?
    
19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
    
20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
    
21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
    
22. Is Christ real to me?

A good way to sart our hourney don't you think?

h/t SNU