Developing the Disciplines in your Walk (part III)
August 22, 2007 1:00 pm BlogsThis week we look at prayer.
There are many spiritual disciplines God makes available to us as means for growing, stabilizing, and delighting us in a pursuit of his glory. I am expounding on 9 of them, one each week.
For many how one is to live as a Christian in this world is a huge question mark. The result is often a compartmentalization, where your Christian self fits into Sunday mornings and the rest of the week is a different story. I want to help us all have a picture of what the regular Christian life is to look like.
3. Walking in Prayer
Phillippians 4:6 “…in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.”
Prayer is a big subject. For those who do not know God, it seems a crutch for those who are weak. For those who know God, it is currency of the relationship. We speak to God in prayer and he speaks to us in His Word, the Bible. How do you pray? Do you ever feel like you want pray but when you go to pray you are not quite sure what to say? It is easy to pray in crisis when you have a direct immediate need, but how about regular every day prayer life?
I don’t think there are any set ways you are supposed to pray every time. In fact I think God provides a myriad of ways so that we will not get stuck in religious duty in our prayer life. So here is a smattering of things that can help stimulate your prayer life on any given day.
You can try and start theologically from the top down, acknowledging and thanking God of who he is and what he has done in history and in your life. You can pray through certain doctrines of the Bible, like God’s sovereignty or justification. You can pray the prayers of the Bible, there a ton in the Psalms and New Testament letters. Or you can begin with yourself and how you are feeling and communicate to God what is on your heart and mind.
I find that it is a totally different experience to pray outloud. This often enables you to be much more focused and engaged while you pray. In addition, sometimes the posture of your body can greatly enhance or effect your prayer. So try kneeling sometimes while you pray or laying prostrate, face down on the ground. In this way you communicate a humility and acknowledgement of who you are talking to.
Often times some patterns or tools can be helpful. The Lord’s prayer is an excellent prayer to pray either word for word or as a pattern. As a pattern, you begin with acknowledging God as Father and speak of his perfections, then you pray for his work to be done in your heart and in the heart of others here on earth, then you pray for help for the particular day and recognize your great spiritual need which is greater than the need for food, then you think of sins you may have recently committed and confess them and ask for forgiveness, then you pray for spiritual protection against evil particularly praying for areas of sin you have fallen in some time before.
Another pattern people have used is the five finger prayer. For you thumb you pray for your friends and family (because your thumb is your tallest finger), for your forefinger you pray for your pastor and teachers (because they point you in the right direction), for your middle finger you pray for the political government (because they are the tallest), for your ring finger you pray for the weak and needy and those who don’t know Jesus (because it is the weakest finger), and lastly for the pinky you pray for yourself (because you and your pinky are the smallest). Some people use acronymns like A.C.T.S. and follow that pattern of (A)doration (C)onfession (T)hanksgiving (S)upplication. Others use prayer lists. Personally, I have a list of names on a piece of paper that I pray through every day.
Prayer is important, it aligns our heart with God. We need it because we are very prone to go astray. In prayer we can make requests but we need beware not to treat God as some cosmic vending machine and get upset if he doesn’t answer the way we want. It has been said, God always answers, sometimes his answer is yes, yes and here is more, sometimes no, or sometimes no, not yet.
I’ve read a lot of books on prayer. Some are written with the intent to ignite a passion. Some are written with the intent of communicating the practical need. The best book I have found is “Prayer” by Richard Foster. In it Foster surveys all the different types and ways of Christian praying. If you are interested in becoming a better prayerer I’d encourage you to check that out and to just spend more and more time praying. Jesus said his house is to be a house of prayer. Let us be that house.
-Pastor Duane