Spiritual Disciplines #2: Prayer

This month we continue our discussion about spiritual disciplines, following Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline, with a discussion on the discipline of prayer.

Prayer is talking to God.  I have often called prayer a wish properly addressed.  What do I mean by that?  If we sent a letter, or an email, but did not put on it the correct address, it would not arrive at its destination.  Too often we express our wishes, our hopes, our dreams, and our fears, to ourselves, to others, or even just to the air around us.  Too often even what we call our prayers are merely addressed “to whom it may concern,’ rather than being addressed directly to God.

Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  Anxiety, worry, is the direct opposite of prayer.  Or, as I said before, prayer is worry properly addressed.  Imagine how much, and how deeply, you would pray if you took every worry, every wish, every hope, every fear and addressed it to God in prayer rather than simply talking to yourself, or others, about it.  Imagine if every time you said, “Oh my God,” or “Thank God,” it really was a prayer and not just an expression.

One of the greatest difficulties many people have with prayer is knowing what to say.  Of course, sometimes we don’t have to say anything.  Romans 8:26 says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through groaning too deep for words.”  And, while there is a danger of falling into overly formal and repetitive prayer, (Matthew 6:7) many people find it useful to use some kind of pattern or outline for their prayer time.  Many of you may have heard me talk about the ACTS model or “The four things to say to God every day.”

·         Adoration – “I love you.” – We praise God and tell him we love him.

·         Confession – “I’m sorry.” – We confess our sins and ask for forgiveness.

·         Thanksgiving – “Thank you.” – We thank God for all that we have.  “Count your blessings.”

·         Supplication – “Please…” – We ask God for the things we need, for ourselves, and others.

I believe that prayer changes things, but the first thing that prayer changes is the one who prays. Foster said, “In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thoughts after him.”  I have found, over and over again, that when I really pray about something, especially in the area of inter-personal relationships, that while I am praying, my perspective begins to change and I am able to see things more clearly and positively.  Having said that, I can also tell you about many times that God has come through for me and my family and our churches in real concrete ways in direct answer to prayer.

But what if the answer is “no?”  Sometimes God says, “no.”  There is simply no other way to put it.  That is God’s right as God.  We pray for the healing of a loved one, but instead God takes them to heaven.  (Not really much to complain about there, if we really think about it.)  We pray for the new job, but God seems to want us right where we are.  All we can do is trust that what God wants for us, in the long run, is better than what we want for ourselves in the moment.  Garth Brooks sang, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”  I would only correct that by saying that God answers every prayer but sometimes the answer is “no.”

I leave you with the prayer of St. John Chrysostom and early church father from the 4^th Century: “Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.” 

Spiritual Disciplines #1: Meditation

As we begin a new year we often begin with a “New Year’s Resolution” and often these can involve something to do with our spiritual life.  For instance, we often begin a new year with a resolution to read our Bible and pray every day.  But as we all know these resolutions often fall by the wayside before January is even over.  In order to help us keep our resolutions I will be writing on spiritual disciplines for 2017.

As an outline for this series I will be using Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline.  I would encourage you all to obtain a copy, they are available through Amazon.  Foster, conveniently, writes about twelve disciplines, so we will be able to talk about one each month in 2017.  There are four inward disciplines: meditation, prayer, fasting, and study; four outward disciplines: simplicity, solitude, submission, and service; and, four corporate disciplines: confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.

Foster begins his book with the discipline of meditation but goes to great lengths to distinguish Christian mediation from meditation in eastern religions, for while those traditions encourages one to meditate in order to find answers from within oneself, Christian meditation, however, is looking outward to God and God’s Word to find answers.

Meditation simply means to think deeply.  In our case, we are thinking deeply about God and God’s Word.  It is important to remember that the object of our meditation is God as he has revealed himself in Scripture, not our own thoughts about God.  If prayer, which we will talk about next month, is talking to God, then meditation could be seen as listening for God’s answer; listening for that still small voice. (1 Kings 19:12)

While it is possible to meditate anytime and anywhere, for the beginner, Foster recommends finding a particular time of day, even just a few minutes, in a quiet comfortable location and a comfortable posture, no need to sit cross-legged on the floor.  Choose perhaps a small verse, or even single word, of Scripture upon which to meditate. For instance, one might choose Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”  One could reflect on what it means to be still, what it means to know God and to let God be God.  One could try to understand what God might be using the verse to try to say to me in my present situation.  Other things upon which to meditate would be words of hymns and songs, or attributes of God, such as goodness or holiness.

We have started off our series on spiritual disciplines with one of the most difficult to practice, but we may as well start with the hard stuff when we are the most motivated.  I am by no means an expert on many of these disciplines, especially meditation, so I would encourage you to acquire a copy of Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline from Amazon, or another bookseller, and join me throughout 2017 in building up our spiritual health together.