SO I had a coffee with a friend of mine the other month and we were talking about the concept of prayer. You know, the old debate about does it do any good…prayer isn’t for God, it’s for you; prayer doesn’t change things, it changes you; and any other number of potentially ponderous and truth-laden yet both trite and pathetically sunday-school sounding one liners about the topic.
I am always amazed at our collective ability and deep seated desire to take something as mystical and conversation-birthing as prayer and “distill” it down into a bumper sticker. Like somehow anything that has to do with the maker of all creation can be summed up in 8 words or less and be witty as well as pithy. Because everyone knows that on the 8th day God didn’t really rest, he started coming up with droll little marketing slogans for Himself for t-shirts, bumper stickers and sermon illustrations. But I digress…
We were talking about prayer and as many aspects of it as we could think of. How do we do it? Why do we do it? When do we do it? How many of those little slogans about prayer are really accurate? Having been brought up in church, I am well acquainted with all (or at least most) of the past and current trendy thoughts on it. Like the book of Acts is a great little acronym Adoration Confession Thanksgiving Supplication. And that is the order and substance of how we ought to pray. Then there are those who think we should be “praying the Bible” cause God’s words are way better than ours, so lets pray His back to Him cause logically He is MUCH more inclined to even listen to, much less respond to, His own words than to ours. Of course there is also the culturally understood Are you there God? It’s me Margaret style of prayer also. I know lots of folks who lean heavily towards the “go into your prayer closet” style (which obviously means that they have way more storage space available to them in their house if they can have a closet empty and so dedicated). I know quite a few who subscribe to the early morning “quite time” or “personal devotion”. I have always been a little leery of personal devotion. I mean, I like me and all - after all, what’s not to like - but not sure that I would go so far as to say that I am devoted to myself personally. (I would always end up with that song from Grease going through my head, and I have to believe that this would somehow take away from any praying). Again, I digress…
Being the believer in all things internet that I am, I went to a source that simply cannot be denied - Wikipedia to ask about prayer. I think that this is almost too easy for us. There was a time that you had to go on a quest for knowledge. A difficult journey that required much of you. Like in those books by Piers Anthony the Xanth novels - where you could only go ask the oracle ONE question in your entire lifetime and to get to him you had to overcome 3 challenges that could end your life (thus ensuring that you did not come to ask a frivolous question). But now-a-days one can simply bring up Wikipedia and have the knowledge of all the known universes at their fingertips. That has got to piss off those guys who had the big library in Alexandria I mean seriously. Anyway, having overcome all three challenges with barely a scratch to show for it, I entered the realm of the oracle Wikipedia and asked it about prayer and this was what I got:
The great spiritual traditions offer a wide variety of devotional acts. There are morning and evening prayers, graces said over meals, and reverent physical gestures. Some Christians bow their heads and fold their hands. Native Americans dance. Some Sufis whirl. Hindus chant. Orthodox Jews sway their bodies back and forth. Quakers keep silent. Among these methodologies are a variety of approaches to understanding prayer:
- The belief that the finite can actually communicate with the infinite;
- The belief that the infinite is interested in communicating with the finite;
- The belief that the prayer is listened to and may or may not get a response;
- The belief that prayer is intended to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, rather than to influence the recipient;
- The belief that prayer is intended to train a person to focus on the recipient through philosophy and intellectual contemplation;
- The belief that prayer is intended to enable a person to gain a direct experience of the recipient;
- The belief that prayer is intended to affect the very fabric of reality itself;
- The belief that the recipient expects or appreciates prayer
So I got that going for me…which is nice. We also have the trendy 24-hour house of prayer, moments of silence, meditation, chanting, prayer beads, prayer wheels, fasting, contemplation, prayer cloths, etc. (seriously, I could go on…I shite thee not)
SO, WTF is up with prayer? Don’t get me wrong my friends, I pray. I am a prayer. I encourage others to pray. I won’t go so far as to say that I pray without ceasing - because, depending on your personal take on prayer, it might be difficult if not impossible to write this post and pray at the same time; while others of you may have no problem thinking that I can do both simultaneously. In fact, some of you might be praying while you read this - and of those that are doing that, I can only assume that most of you are probably specifically praying for me. And make no mistake, I will happily receive that.
While all of that mostly likely could have gone without saying, I said it. I figure lots of what I say could go without saying, but then this would be a really short post - in fact it would be a short blog. But I want to make sure that when you punch your ticket on the Maru that you get your money’s worth (if valued only in a per letter basis).
So, what’s the deal with prayer? Is it more for us that God? Does it change things? Does it actually change us? Does it simply make us feel better (I am assuming that it does in fact make you feel better, cause it usually does me)? I leave this as an opened string o’ questions and invite discussion and thoughts. I really have no solid opinion, but I am more than willing to hear yours. I am a practicing prayer for sure, but I know that it is often as much about obedience as it is about substance. Sometimes it is cathartic release. Sometimes I see real answers (at least I clock them as such). Sometimes I feel them bouncing off the ceiling and hitting my occasionally bowed head. Sometimes I do it aloud. Sometimes I do it silently. Sometimes I am very humble. Sometimes I cuss a lot. Sometimes I am thankful and sometimes I am pissed off. Sometimes I think I understand and sometimes I figure I know next to nothing.
But my buddy summed it up better than I could on that day over coffee. HE said that for him, prayer is sitting in embarrassed silence before the Lord. Amen.
at 6:44 am
Good blog tex… keep it up
—Tex says—
Awwwww…(blush)
at 9:11 am
Okay, first I have to say that yesterday (really- I am not making this up) I thought to myself “I have got to e-mail Tex and ask him if he’s remembered the name of that book series yet- the one with one question.” Honest.
I think that like most folks prayer isn’t a simple, definable thing for me. Often prayer is an act of willfully surrendering my cares, laying them at God’s feet. This is not easy, as I am inclined to take my burdens back every so often, but God is patient. And it isn’t confined to a spot in my schedule. It can’t be.
I actually struggled a lot for years with guilt that I wasn’t doing my faith ‘right’. I am a horrible devotee, if you want 2 chapters of Bible reading and 1/2 hour of prayer, plus meals daily. But when I rejected the guilt I was able to find may more ways to practice devotiion, ways which suit the person I am and which seem so much more real. And so now I am apt to pick up the thread of a prayer and knit some more into it anytime.
—Tex says—
It would be so easy to insert a joke here about “praying for an answer to the Piers Anthony book question”, but that might sound sac religious, and Lord knows I never want to do that (in a forum where it can be proven that I did).
I love your comment about being a horrible devotee “if you want 2 chapters of Bible reading and 1/2 hour of prayer, plus meals daily.” It was the plus meals part that got me howling (or for those so inclined ROF). Because it is so true for so many. I am also a fan of the knitting analogy - I think that is apt. Like our entire prayer life is one consistent thing to be added to each time we “pick up the thread.” That is a word picture that I can relate to. For some people that would be the mother of all afghans (the knitted blanket, not the people group), and for others it would be a lovely little coffee coaster.
at 6:01 pm
Excellent post and great comments!
Prayer is very important to me, and a topic close to my heart. This from a girl who used to shake her head at school friends whose families said grace before dinner. I must remind myself of that now and then for humility’s sake - it ain’t me it’s God.
I love the knitting analogy. Or weaving. It’s true of how I’ll pick up a prayer at different points and places as I go through my day.
I sometimes liken prayer to a conversation. Or a series of them. Maybe a long-term correspondence. But sometimes it’s a casual conversation, picked up as you pass someone in the hall. Sometimes there’s an ongoing joke that colors everything for awhile. And sometimes I definitely feel the need to set everything else aside and lay it out on the table. Or dump the whole pile in front of the throne.
And sometimes it’s my turn to shut up and listen, even just to hear the silence. Sometimes it’s a private conversation, sometimes you share it with others.
But I don’t see it as anything with a formula or a schedule. (What a boring tapestry would result from that.) Some of my most intense times of prayer and intercession have come when I’m woken in the night with a sense of urgency.
One of the things I’ve savoured most in my role as mom at home has been a sense of freedom to carry a thread more fully in and out of different aspects of my day, without the sense that I’m working off someone else’s clock. After all, both assignments are from the same boss.
at 6:11 pm
I’ve thought a lot about prayer. I even preached on it once. This is a copy & paste job of the middle part…
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Prayer is talking with God. We pray when we open our heart to the Almighty.
Have you ever thought about that? There is this “entity” that created the universe. The entire universe! And this entity, also (and this is the weirdest part), also… wants… to know… you.
It seems that God spends His time ensuring the sun comes up and the stars shine and the wind blows and that strawberries taste great… not wanting hear about our aches and pains and sorrows and joys and delights.
But that is a lie! That is perhaps the BIGGEST lie of our age.
Jesus teaches Matthew 7:11 “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him”.
John writes in his epistle, 1 John 5:14 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation: the spirit is willing but our bodies are week (Matt 26:41)
Prayer, in fact, was the priority in Jesus life (yeah, the guy that was fully man and fully God). He thought it was the most important thing; more important than rest (he would pray all night), more important than eating (he fasted for long periods of time).
Jesus did not pray because he had to: Jesus prayed because he WANTED to be obedient to, united with and empowered by the Father.
Why?
• QUALITY OF RELATIONSHIP – Simply, if you want to have a close relationship with somebody, you have to have dialogue with them. Also, not working on your relationship with God, puts the responsibility of your spiritual well-being on to someone else… typically the pastor. That’s a responsibility nobody else deserves.
• WE ARE IN A BATTLE – Our country doesn’t seem to believe that there is an enemy out there that is try to kill and destroy us. That is the most effective battle-strategy every created… to deceive the other side into thinking that you don’t exist. I wonder if anyone understood what I just said. Prayer is used as both a shield and as a sword.
• PRAYER IS A DETERRENT TO SIN IN OUR LIVES - Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation: the spirit is willing but our bodies are week (Matt 26:41)
• Prayer makes a difference – this is the most exciting point… prayer works. Why? God CHOOSES to limit his power, so that WE can bring it into reality.
Try this plant analogy – I think that all of the things God wants to do are like seeds that he has planted. He took the time to figure out how he’d like things to turn out, then he planted seeds that can make it happen
- Seeds of opportunity
- Seeds of favour
- Seeds of revelation
- Seeds of knowledge
- Seeds of wisdom
- Seeds of kindness, etc.
But most seeds, don’t grow… until they are prayed about.
If you don’t ask for opportunity, if you don’t ask for favour, if you don’t ask for knowledge… you won’t have them. Does that mean that life will suck? No, God is good and he will allow a few seeds to blossom, but not to the extent that it would if you took time to talk to God and to listen.
I think that prayer is the single most important thing that human beings can do. Did you hear that? THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING that we can do. And, the best thing about it is that THAT’S what God wants most from us… a relationship. So if we come to Him. He will reward us.
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Does that make sense?
—Tex says—
I knew it was only a matter of time before someone started preaching on here!!! BMac breaks the seal!!!
at 3:17 pm
I told Tex that I don’t post much because I really believe that I don’t have much to say. So much is said already. He told me to post anyways so here goes.
I’m not a writer either, and sometimes when I see my thoughts in print, it makes me look like the crazy person I really am!
Prayer to me isn’t a topic as much as an expression of reality. My best friend can sit in the same room as I am in, and not say a word. He still knows I love him and he loves me. Sometimes communication isn’t verbal or a set of rules or definitions. His presence is everything to me.
God is like that to me. Always present but not always talking. I think that the struggle with prayer isn’t a struggle with the how, where, or rules. It’s a struggle with a really important question…”Is God real?”. It’s a reality question that needs to be answered. If God is real and is interested in a relationship with me, then it’s not about magic phrases, times, positions, or anything at all like that. It’s all about presence. God is always present, so that means to me that I can always communicate with Him through verbal means, sighs, tears, singing, reading, walking, thoughts, and even silence. Feel free to add to the list. I really want to know God, and that can be different for everyone. God and I have a very good relationship, although antagonistic at times. I know that my friend and father God loves me through the good, the bad, and the ugly. Bad things happen to good people, and He knows that fact, and is willing to take the heat and the tears.
If God is real, and did what the Bible says to save me, then I think I’ll just keep talking to Him. God knows I have very few answers to life’s struggles, so I’m willing to take His advice. The comfort of the Holy Spirit is sometimes my only sanity!
—Tex says–
Ignore jem’s comments about having nothing to say or not being a writer…maybe hang on to the crazy part though (just in case). Well said jem. I think the only way to have a real relationship with God is to allow for some antagonism. That’s part of being real - often the most important part.