Tag Archives: Prayer

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Praying for a Lifetime


www.gemhelen.com“I do not find as life goes on that the principle of putting prayer first in daily life becomes any easier to keep. It is true that long habit makes it natural to keep the Rule of Prayer, but, on the other hand, decreasing vitality makes it harder to use times which were formerly easy. I have had, like many others, to use the early morning because the struggle against wandering thoughts was too hard in the evening. I feel sure that the constant warfare which is necessary to keep prayer in the first place must go on as long as life lasts.” (Morgan, Edmund R. Reginald Somerset Ward: His Life and Letters. London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd, 1963, p. 78.)

Beginning with prayer did not somehow become easy as Ward aged. It isn’t happening that way for me either. He actually found that the diminished energy of aging made it harder to engage in a regular habit of prayer. But harder isn’t impossible. Harder is just harder.

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The One Who Welcomes Our Prayers


IMG_2266“God must not be represented as one who needs to be cajoled, and prayer must not be presented as a device by which we wring from a grudging Father what He does not want to give us. Prayer is not an overcoming of God’s reluctance, for He already wants the best for us. It is not because God’s will needs to be changed, but because of our own weakness and ineptitude that prayer must be continuous and persistent.” (Trueblood, Elton. The Lord’s Prayers. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965, p. 42.)

When I pray, how do I imagine God’s posture towards me? Do I have a vision of the Father that looks more a human father on a bad day? (Being a father is a hard job, and few are well-prepared for it).

Continual prayer is not about pestering God into doing what we want Him to do. We do not need to jumpstart Him. Praying continually is an invitation to live in constant communion with a measurelessly good God who is always available, always caring, always for me. I have lived so much of my life as though God were distant and rarely available. I have behaved as though I did not have access to all the resources of heaven as a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. I pray continually not to gain favor but to abide in favor.

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Reliable Constants of Life in Jesus


Morning walk on our first morning in Singapore last week.

Morning walk on our first morning in Singapore last week.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

These simple pieces of counsel are an invitation to a steady and faithful way of life in Christ. This is how God wants us to live in Christ. Choose joy. Live in continual communion with God. See and affirm grace in every circumstance. This invitation inspires me. I feel hungry and thirsty for a life of deep joy, loving communion and faithful gratitude.

When it comes to the invitation to “rejoice always,” I find a complaint rise up from somewhere within me. I don’t think it’s an especially holy place. “But I don’t feel any joy. I feel depressed. I feel weary. I feel downcast (in the language of so many psalms).” The answer that arises in me comes from what feels like a better place, “Don’t measure or base your life on surface feelings. Those feelings are what they are. Joy comes from a deeper and more real place that has roots in eternal reality. You have more reason to be joyful than you can possibly imagine. A glimpse of the glories of God’s very presence would overflow your heart with a joy you couldn’t possibly contain.”

I also think of what my friend, Jon Byron, once said about worship. He calls it a “stimulated response” to God. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Worship is a response to a vision of–an encounter with–glory. Isaiah has a vision of the Lord’s glory and is overcome with holy fear and profound awe. Then, he worships God. Perhaps rejoicing, prayer and gratitude are also stimulated responses. Father, I welcome Your Spirit to open my eyes to see what I’m too often missing, to open my ears to hear words of love, grace and power, to open my heart to receive and express vital life. Thank You.

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The Prayers of a Leader


From my recent trip to the Dominican Republic to lead The Journey.

From my recent trip to the Dominican Republic to lead The Journey.

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul’s leadership prayer for the Thesslonians in this case was to ask that God might enable them to be worthy of His choice of them. I understand this to be a worthiness of loving God back, not a worthiness of performance for God. It is living for God’s pleasure rather than my own (though the fact is that my truest and deepest pleasure actually is God’s pleasure for me).

Paul also prays that they would experience God’s empowerment and provision so that every good desire in their hearts would come to full fruition. Paul asks God to enable Christ’s followers in Thessalonica to do everything they have in their hearts to do to bring pleasure and credit to their Father in heaven. Paul believes that this will result in the beauty and weightiness of Christ to be with each of us and all of us. And it all happens according to the generous favor of the Father and the Son.

I keep wondering what it would be like if we were praying prayers like these for one another.

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About Prayer: Less is More


A view from the Journey in the Dominican Republic last month.

A view from the Journey in the Dominican Republic last month.

Matthew 6:7-8 NIV, “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

I’ve prayed with followers of Jesus in many traditions. When it comes to us Evangelicals, we are the wordy ones. In this text, Jesus says that it is pagans who don’t know the Father who ramble on endlessly, assuming that the more words said, the better the prayer and the more likely God will hear and answer.

Why so many words? Might it be that we have forgotten that our loving Father already knows what we need before we ask? Do we really believe we need to inform Him of something He does not yet know? How would our prayers become simpler if we really believed that He both knew and cared about what we need (even if we’re still waiting for His response)?

So, when I pray, I might do well to begin with no words at first, but a simple remembering of God’s presence with me, in Spirit and with favor. He wants my good. I can remember that. I don’t need to inform Him. I don’t need to convince Him. I don’t need to cajole Him. I just need to ask.

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Morning Prayer: Right With God


IMG_1066(A morning prayer journal from May 2012)

Word/Phrase

Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19 NIV)

Practices and teaches. This is the order. Too often, it has been teaches, and then maybe practices. I am first invited to live these things so that I can speak wisely of them.

Feeling/Emotion

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20 NIV)

I’m tempted to hear “righteousness surpasses” with legalistic or perfectionistic ears. Then, I feel overwhelmed and hopeless. But when I hear these words with ears of loving and being loved, I am encouraged and hopeful. I feel cared for when I realize that Jesus is the One fulfilling all that God desires and requires

Jesus, what is it looking like in this season that You are fulfilling every detail of righteousness for me and in me?

Invitation

Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom. (Matthew 5:20 MSG)

I’m tempted under the burden of the law to abolish it–get out from under it. It isn’t quite that I seek relief in lawlessness, but that I am weary of feeling overwhelmed by what I do not feel I can fulfill. How much better to experience its fulfillment in me by Jesus, that He makes me right with Himself and with others.

Righteousness today is about orienting myself to Jesus, watching for and listening for His goodness, His way. His way is right and righteousness. This is truly inviting to me.  Rightness in me today will be a fruit of communion with the Righteous One. Abiding is a way of living, not just a place to visit like a pit stop.

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The Roots of Spontaneous Prayer


roots“One of the greatest dangers involved in the contemporary practice of prayer arises when we draw a false inference from something which is intrinsically good. It is good that our praying should be spontaneous and glad, it is good that we pray as we walk and think and speak, but it is not good to conclude from this that there is no value in specially planned times of devotion. Our prayers that are spontaneous are richer and truer if they come out of a background of disciplined regularity. The best freedom is the freedom which emerges from a life of control. That is why sincere Christians, however free they feel, soon realize that they need to establish a rule by which to live, and especially a rule by which to pray.” (Trueblood, Elton. The Lord’s Prayers. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965, p. 28.)

Spontaneous prayer is great, but may not be sustainable apart from structures and rhythms of prayer. Holy habits are like roots from which the fruit of spontaneous prayer can grow. Lasting freedom is the fruit of holy discipline.

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The Secret of God


b15architecture_interiors007-imagea I enjoyed this so much I’ll share it without comment:

“The only solution that God has to offer to all our problems is himself, is the fact that he is, that he is the kind of God that he is, a God who has a Word to utter, which he utters in an ecstasy of joy, an ecstasy of giving, which we call the Holy Spirit….

“God has only the one thing to say, which is himself, he has only the one thing to give, which is himself. And he invites us to hear that Word, to treasure it in our hearts and find in it the source of all our bliss.” (Tugwell, Simon. Prayer: Living With God. Springfield: Templegate Publishers, 1975, p. 126-27.)

This morning, Gem and I are flying to the Dominican Republic to lead a church leadership retreat, as well as retreat 5 of 6 of the Journey Gen 1 here. We would be grateful to have you agree with us in Jesus that we will experience a great sense of His presence in our gatherings, much creativity and emotional energy, and His transforming grace in each person’s life.

As internet can be unpredictable where we hold the retreats, I may go quiet here between now and our return January 18th. (But I’ll still try to post regularly).

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Whose Will Be Done?


IMG_7170When we pray, what are we asking for? Are we thinking mostly about what we want or expect, and then asking God to do something about that? Or, are we learning to pray in the spirit of the prayer Jesus taught us: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done”? I like how Simon Tugwell puts it:

I think we should occasionally scrutinise our own praying to see just what we mean when we say, ‘Please God, help me to do…’ Of course this can be a perfectly legitimate way of praying, and it has ample support in scripture and in the liturgy. But if it simply means that we decide what is to be done and then require God to provide, as it were, the supernatural fuel, then surely we have sadly missed the point. We are meant to become part of God’s schemes, not to make him part of ours. (Tugwell, Simon. Prayer: Living With God. Springfield: Templegate Publishers, 1975, p. 122.)

Are my prayers for God’s help an acknowledgement of and entering into God’s will, or are they an attempt to get God involved in my own project for Him? God’s will done in God’s way and by God’s power is what we are seeking.

Think about your own prayers lately. Where are you inviting God to do what He wishes? Where are you asking Him to do what you wish? How might you wish to change the way you pray?

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Always a Beginner With God


IMG_7184After we’ve been Christians a while, we may be tempted to think we’ve got the Christian life figured out. Simon Tugwell speaks to this temptation well:

“Often we shall be tempted to think that at last we have begun to see the pattern, at last we are beginning to find our way around, or at last we have mastered whatever lesson was being taught us. And then, without warning, we shall be moved into the next class and have to start all over again at the bottom.” (Tugwell, Simon. Prayer: Living With God. Springfield: Templegate Publishers, 1975, p. 115.)

This is so true of growth in the spiritual life. Just when we think we’ve mastered the little neighborhood within which we’re tempted to see ourselves as masters or experts, God widens the circle a bit and we realize how little we really knew. We are always beginners in relation to God. Wherever it is that we feel we’ve become experts is actually a very small and confining space.

As we prepare to enter a New Year, where might Jesus be expanding your horizons? Where do you feel stretched and a little uncomfortable? How might that actually be an invitation into a deeper, richer experience of Jesus in your life?