Well, my exercise, at least in so far that I posted it here, was, well, lacking.
Such is the story of my discipleship. But I keep walking. Perhaps even struggling. But for now, that is enough.
the rest of the prayer studies: Covenant Prayer, The Prayer of Adoration, The Prayer of Rest, Sacramental Prayer, Unceasing Prayer, The Prayer of the Heart, Meditative Prayer, Contemplative Prayer, Praying the Ordinary, Petitionary Prayer, Intercessory Prayer, Healing Prayer, The Prayer of Suffering, Authoritative Prayer, Radical Prayer
can be found here
Showing posts with label Prayer Study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prayer Study. Show all posts
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Saturday, June 20, 2009
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
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
Sunday, May 10, 2009
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
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
Saturday, May 2, 2009
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 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
Thursday, April 23, 2009
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)
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.
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