Faith Venture

Something within me, whether intentional or not, brings awareness toward God to prayer.

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Then words—maybe.

How do you imagine God? Where is this God that you imagine?

Someone said they were puzzled by how they could send a prayer all the way up to heaven and it could make it to God.

I understand. Many people imagine God as sitting in an ornate chair up in the sky somewhere.

Jesus said that the kingdom of God is all around us. Paul tried to describe it as our bodies are temples, that is the residence of God in the language of the day, of the Holy Spirit, that is the way we experience God after Jesus’s resurrection.

We could just as easily imagine prayer as a conversation with someone right here beside us. Someone I read many years ago described gatherings of the first followers of Jesus as experiencing him right there in the room with them. More than a belief—an experience.

A good and refreshing conversation includes me talking, me listening, pauses, nodding our heads in agreement, lifting eyebrows in surprise, maybe a smile or a tear.

I once offered to teach a prayer class. It should be a limited term class. Six weeks. Experiencing various types and methods of prayer developed over millennia. People came expecting me to teach about prayer, you know, six examples from the Bible to memorize or something. I wanted to show them, actually have them experience, different forms of prayer much like teaching different poses in a Yoga class or how to use dumbbells when doing resistance training where you actually must perform the action taught. 

How about you? Do you just want an intellectual knowledge about God and conversations with God? Or perhaps a deeper experience of relationship? 

Sometimes we are way too much into head and way too little into heart (soul).

Monday’s post looked at how many people want to know things about prayer, but they do not want to learn and practice prayer itself.

My wife was raised in an independent Baptist church. She was taught that all prayers must come directly from the heart. She was disturbed when a pastor had written a prayer and read it as part of a service. It couldn’t have come from the heart because he read it. But, I would ask, wasn’t it in his heart when he wrote it (Baptist, had to be a “he”)? 

Similarly, she was trained to be derisive about “reciting” the Lord’s Prayer (the Our Father). If you are merely reciting words written 2,000 years ago, it obviously isn’t from your heart.

I would say that “praying” the Lord’s Prayer gave a structure to a prayer. It reminds me (us) of the different things we should be weighing on our heart. 

• Oh, yes, there is someone I need to forgive.
• Oh, yes, I can pray for something I need today.
• Oh, yes, I can ask for protection from something bad that may happen to me or others.
• I need to remember to acknowledge God as the power in my life as in others.

This Renovaré podcast conversation with Nate Foster (Richard J. Foster’s son) and Mon­i­ca and Jere­my Cham­bers about how they pray the Lord’s Prayer inspired me to go deeper into using this short and simple, yet deep and comprehensive, prayer template in my own daily meditations.

Here is a version translated by the ever thoughtful Dallas Willard:

Dear Father, Always near us,

May your name be treasured and loved,

May your will be done on earth in just the way it is done in heaven.

Give us today the things we need today,

And forgive us our sins and impositions on you

As we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.

Please don’t put us through trials,

But deliver us from everything bad.

Because you are in charge,

And you have all the power,

And the glory too is all yours—forever—

Which is just the way we want it!

Dallas Willard

I once tried teaching prayer. It would be a class at church.

My idea was to teach prayer—not about prayer, but how to pray with practice.

Several people accepted the challenge and signed up.

It turned out that they wanted to learn about prayer. You know, types of prayer—intercessory, confession, praise, contemplative. Like a seminary course. All in the head.

One of my guides to the inner life was Morton Kelsey (The Other Side of Silence). He talked about being suspect at seminary by other students and faculty when he and a small group of friends met regularly for prayer. I’ve read about John and Charles Wesley and a few friends who met regularly for prayer at seminary and were called, not warmly, “methodists” for meeting intentionally and methodically.

Living in our heads comes so easily to us. We seem to have a million thoughts per second. Yet, the two ways we need to go are hard and often ignored.

• To go deeply into the soul touching God.
• To go out into the world and act as if we really followed Jesus.

Oh, and how to pray? Kind of like the advertising slogan–Just Do It. Every day. Several times a day. With intention. Don’t forget to use part of the time to listen.