One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”In the bit of the Bible above, some of Jesus' friends wanted to be taught how to pray.
Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this:
‘Father:
May your holy name be honoured;
may your Kingdom come.
Give us day by day the food we need.
Forgive us our sins,
for we forgive everyone who does us wrong.
And do not bring us to hard testing.’ ”
Luke 11:1-4 (GNB)
What is prayer? What are we doing when we pray?
Talking to God. Often we're asking for help, sometimes we're sharing how we feel about things, other times we're thanking God for stuff. Prayer is also a chance to say sorry to God for things we shouldn't have done and to try and put into words how wonderful God is.
How are we to pray?
Some people find kneeling down puts them in the right frame of mind. Personally, my feet are too big and not bendy enough. It doesn't take long for the only thing going through my mind to be, "Ow! My ankles hurt!"
Some people also find that spending a long time sitting quietly helps them to think about God and really get into their prayers. Others concentrate on a verse from the Bible. Some people speak out loud. Others don't really use words at all.
There are all kinds of ways to pray and things to pray about. I probably pray best when I'm doing a chore like the washing up. That keeps me in one place and stops me wandering off but isn't so demanding that it takes up all my thoughts. I've still got some left to have a chat with God.
When Jesus' friends asked him how they should pray. He gave them - and us - some ideas about what to pray about. The essentials like praising God, asking for forgiveness and asking for whatever we need to get through each day.
He didn't give them strict instructions how to sit or anything like that. He gave them a place to start.
Rather than asking, they maybe should have paid a bit more attention to what he actually did himself. There are plenty of times in the Bible where Jesus prays.
So what can we learn from him? How should we pray?
I think the most obvious answer is: a lot. God is ready to listen to us wherever we are and whatever we have to say.
Posts
In the Orthodox Church there is a notion of "the rule of prayer", which is, roughly, this: everyone should have a specific time set aside for prayer every day, and a plan for how to pray, usually a combination of praying in your own words if you can, or reading set prayers if you cannot. The idea is, you have to make a "space" for communicating with God, and practice it regularly, even if you don't "feel like it".
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I am more often than not in the "set prayers" category, and one has to be very careful not to make it into a mindless repetition exercise. But I think having this practice does help me be more open and ready for praying at times when I really need it. As part of this, I ended up finding various short fragments which, while formulaic, serve me well during the day when I need to calm down or otherwise call out to God but am too pressured to think.
And yes, we are also supposed to pray a lot, as we go along our days, chores, and so on - prayer is definitely not "once or twice a day only" activity.
'The rule of prayer' actually sounds very similar to the Evangelical concept of having a 'quiet time'. It's reassuring we're all doing the same thing in our own way but rather ironic too!
ReplyDeleteI'm not knocking rules - they can be great for discipline. It's just a case of finding our own way which we feel comfortable with and not thinking prayer is something the minister does on a Sunday morning.
(I've also met people who really sincerely believed that the Lord's Prayer was given to us word-for-word in King James English and shouldn't be messed with in any way. I was thinking of them a little while preparing this service. ;-) )
Yes, prayer is definitely not something for the minister on Sunday morning. My prayer book says that the most important thing is to begin, and remember that some of the best prayers are very simple. The prayer of the tax collector was "Lord have mercy on me a sinner". And, as St. Paul says, we are to pray without ceasing, so, indeed, whatever lets us pray regularly and sincerely is the right thing to do.
ReplyDelete