Part 5: The Practice of Prayer – Sept 2, 2018
This morning we conclude our series on Prayer.
We began by acknowledging that the power that undergirds our prayers is the power that flows from God’s mercy, through the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us, who touches the heart of God on our behalf; and through the power that comes from the vine, comes from Jesus, in whom we abide.
Next, we listened to the witness of Paul who assured us that the Lord, who is near, encourages us to ask, to let our requests be made known, and that the peace of God guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we abide in the vine of Jesus, while we pray and while we wait.
Then we gave thanks for the words of Jesus who taught us to persist in our prayer while not losing heart.
Last week, the Lord’s Prayer, provided a pattern of prayer that includes provoking God to listen, giving praise to God, making a plea for God’s intervention, and seeking God’s provision, pardon, and protection.
And now today, we’re ready to think about the practice of prayer.
I enjoy bowling but don’t get to do it very often. There was a time in my life when I bowled on a team and practiced several times a week. With each practice game, I tried new things. Different ways to stand, hold the bowling ball, different ways to approach the lane, release the ball. I learned new techniques, some that worked and some that didn’t. The more I practiced the better I became. But it was all temporary.
When I stopped practicing, stopped bowling regularly, my skills deteriorated, and my form fell apart.
I believe that the same holds true with prayer.
When prayer becomes something that we seldom engage, or only engage in quick bursts, we may find it less satisfying, and it might eventually become more difficult to pray.
But, when we pray regularly when prayer becomes a habit, something that we can’t do without, we may find that our prayers become more meaningful and we may feel a deeper connection to God.
We all have the best of intentions when it comes to prayer.
You’re talking with a friend who shares a situation with you. You listen carefully and promise to pray for that person. You leave that interaction with the very best of intentions, telling yourself that you’ll pray for that person, but then you move on to the next thing, and before you realize it, you’ve forgotten all about your promise to pray for that person.
You’ve been hearing a lot about prayer these days, and I hope that you’ve been thinking about your own prayer life. Maybe you’re satisfied with how it’s going. Or maybe, you’ve decided that you’d like to modify the way that you’ve been praying. You promise yourself that prayer is important, that nurturing your relationship with God through prayer is important to you and so you make a plan.
But then, life gets in the way. Stuff happens and before you know it, nothing changes, you’re back to your old habits.
That’s why prayer is a faith practice, a practice that needs our intentional attention in order to become as natural as breathing.
The practice of prayer starts with an attitude of helplessness before God and trust in God.
This attitude of helplessness causes us to admit to ourselves, and to God, that we’re not in charge, it means that we will seek God’s intervention in our lives, rather than telling God what to do and how to do it.
We can approach God with an attitude of helplessness because we trust in God’s steadfast love for us. This trust enables us to abide in the assurance that God hears us when we pray and gives us the confidence to make our requests known to God.
With an attitude of helplessness and trust in God, the practice of prayer takes time, planning, and a widening of our prayer circle.
Let’s look at time first. Friends, God wants to spend time with you. So, take an inventory – how much time do you spend in prayer every day? Are you satisfied with that amount? If so, that’s wonderful.
If not, think about how you might create more time to pray – can you rearrange your day to make time for prayer, maybe change your routine a little bit, what if you set an alarm on your phone that reminded you to pray, maybe make an appointment with God and write that in your calendar, like you do every other appointment you have.
Creating time to pray takes planning–
Plan for your day
Also, need to plan for your prayer space. Physical space and also your mental space
Plan for how to deal with distractions
With planning, your prayer life can consist of more than just a list of what you need from God each day – with planning, you can intentionally widen your prayer circle.
Starting from the center point of God’s love, your prayer can move outward in widening circles, like ripples in a pond, from yourself to those closest to you, to those in the distance.
In this way, our prayers stretch beyond ourselves into the wideness of creation and as our circle of prayer widens so does our care and concern for others.
There are many different ways to pray –
from kneeling beside the bed to sitting in a chair,
while walking or running, while painting or playing music.
From sitting in a darkened room to being outside in the bright sunshine,
from lighting a candle to reading a verse of scripture,
there are so many different ways to pray – each one of them is holy and acceptable. God creates us as individuals and so how we pray is not a one-size fit all – rather you should look for ways to pray that are meaningful to you.
I like to pray while doing something or touching something – I’ve found that by holding a cross or stone in my hands, I feel more centered in my prayers. For many years now, I’ve used prayer beads to focus or shape my prayers – show sample – talk through – an invite to pick up a set
To me, there’s a difference between saying prayers, which is an activity, and praying which is a soul attitude, a lifting up of the mind to God.
Praying in this way can transform every task, from washing dishes to putting gas in the car. When we think of prayer in this way, prayer can be seen as an ongoing experience of God rather than just part of some to-do list, By thinking of praying as a lifting up of the mind to God, we can increase our awareness of God throughout every moment of our days.
My friends, prayer means keeping company with our God who is already present.
Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. Our minds have the potential to attend to more than one thing at once. This makes it possible to give God attention even while doing something else. To pray without ceasing is to pray simultaneously as other activities are going on. This taps into the mind’s multitasking ability.
While you’re washing dishes, you can also pray for the people who have shared the meal with you, pray for the farmers who raised the food, for the truck drivers who transported the food, for the people who work at the grocery store who stocked the shelves, served as your cashier and who put your groceries in the bags for you.
While you’re filling your car with gas, pray for the other drivers around you, for the attendant in the store, for the truck drivers who transported the gas to the gas station, and for all those who prepared the gas so that it would burn in your car.
In this way, praying happens at all times and in all places, transforming every interaction and every activity into holy, God moments, times in communion with God and with those around us.
Friends, we pray because we believe that God desires an ongoing relationship with us. We pray in trust that the act of prayer is God’s designated way of closing the gap between us and God. We pray in order to put ourselves in the stream of God’s healing work on earth. We pray because God gives us this gift and encourages us, calls us, to use it, to use it to make a difference in our lives and in the lives of others. We pray as we breathe – because we can’t help it. Amen.