Materials
The
Life of Prayer: Prayer in Practice
The Practice Of Prayer
by R. Todd Bouldin
We sometimes talk about the salvation of Christ as if it were just another Foster : “Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life.” That is quite a claim for prayer, and it calls me back to question whether I am living a spiritual life, even a Christian life, if I am not in prayer. This morning I would like for us to again focus on the practice of prayer. Last week, we looked at the postures of prayer. This morning, I would like for us to survey the land of genres of prayer and perhaps open up some new options for us as we continually seek to renew and discover our life of prayer.
Pray
The Transforming Power of Prayer – The author begins the book: “When it comes to prayer, I’m just a beginner.” We all are beginners, and we are constantly reminded of how little we know. All of us struggle to pray, and many times we find ourselves just giving up after repeated but failed attempts to pray. I believe Satan does not want us to pray because he is defeated when we pray. Three lies he tells us:
1. Doubt – Feel foolish talking to the wall, wonder if the gospel is true.
2. Terrifying – Prayer can be scary if you think it is true because we may want to know what God will say.
3. American lie that life should be productive and easily quantified. Prayer is not productive -- it is fruitful, but it rarely works quickly or immediately. We find it difficult to give time to something that is non-productive.
Prayer is essentially not a productive activity because it is essentially not about us. It is about God, and so it requires that we respond to His rhythms and life and not measure prayer by our own. Martin Smith, Episcopal monk – “Prayer is primarily attentiveness to God’s disclosure to us and the heart’s response to that disclosure.” God initiates all of our praying, and God already active and drawing us to respond to Him.
The Christian understanding of prayer essentially is to pray unceasingly. When Paul tells the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing, I believe Paul is urging them to live constantly in relationship with the Trinity. In the Trinity, God goes on in constant relationship with Himself. To participate in prayer is to participate in the life of the Triune God. Paul is urging us to participate in the life of the Trinitarian God which is an ongoing force, energy and life in the world. It is to enter into a relationship that is God’s, and we are given the privilege in prayer to enter in that life and love.
When we enter into prayer, God is the conversation. When we converse, words are the words that pass between us. But to pray to God is to be pulled into that relationship and love that goes on within the life of God, and to learn to listen and bend our lives and wills more and more into that life of God.
A Few Styles of Prayer:
This is not an exhaustive list, but here are six categories that I have found to be useful:
1. Common Prayer -- “Washing dishes prayer” – “stuck in traffic prayer.” Chatty, off-the-cuff spontaneous prayer either makes us comfortable or wigs us out.
2. Visualization – Visualization is not New Age – it has roots in ancient Christian prayer practice. Envision the situation about which you feel a burden to pray and envision Jesus showing up there. Liberating when there is a situation for which I feel a burden but do not know what to pray or what to say. It is a type of intercessory prayer when we feel a burden but don’t know what to ask for in the situation.
3. Journaling – I personally do not have much experience because I quit too easily. But some begin their journal entries “Dear God.” Other times, it is a great one-time exercise. Christian spirituality is full of a history of saints who kept journals as prayers (Merton, Nouwen).
4. Praying with the Scripture – Two major ancient Christian disciplines of praying with the Scripture: 1) Lectio Divina, and 2) Simple Ignatian spirituality.
a. Lectio Divina – “Holy Reading” from Benedictine Monks. One reads a short piece of Scripture, read over and over slowly, and walk four stations:
1. Reading (forgiveness – Matthew 18).
2. Meditate and reflect on the words – attention focuses on a word or phrase (asking God to reveal areas where haven’t forgiven the person).
3. Response to what has been revealed -- Letting go of wrongs.
4. Contemplation – Enter into loving communion with God. Have I gotten there?
(Practice using Matthew 18.)
b. Ignatian Prayer – spend time visualizing the words of Scripture. Pick a passage, imagine sensorily where the scene happened, what you would have heard, what you would have smelt. Imagine yourself in the scene, then Jesus speaks to you. What does He say? How do you respond?
5. Liturgical Prayer -- Liturgical prayer has much to teach us about praying to God. Liturgy is confusing at first, and it later can become dull and boring. It does provide a certain intentionality and purpose to prayer. Without a prayer book, prayer becomes just an expression of how I am feeling that day. But my feelings are not a true arbiter of the world nor the only reality. Liturgical prayer can jolt us out of our own feelings and force us to praise God, to confess our sins, to pray for the poor -- it is not open to our emotional feelings. It points us away from our own narcissism to God.
Resources: Phyllis Tickle, Book of Common Prayer, Upper Room book.
6. Centering Prayer – This ancient form of monastic prayer involves silence, paying attention to one’s breathing, choosing a word about God or Christ, say this word and over silently or aloud – let it envelope you until it becomes part of your breathing and your being. Stay with it and let God speak to you as you repeat the word.
Questions?
Ignatian Prayer Exercise: May feel distracted or uncomfortable -- just bear with it.
Read Mark – Woman with hemorrhage. Read twice.
Invite you to picture the crowd by the seashore, the landscape, the water, the topography. Notice the throngs of people who have come to gather around Jesus – what they are wearing, what they are doing. Imagine Jesus there with them. Where are His disciples? Is it hot? What does it smell like to be in the crowd? See yourself somewhere in the landscape. You at the front, off to the side anonymously? Why had you come? You might be a woman with a 12 year hemorrhage. Wherever you are, approach Jesus. What do you want to say to Him? What is it that you need to tell Him? What is your hemorrhage that needs healing? What is it that you need from Him? What is it that He says to you?
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