This week's "thought" is about prayer - simple, awkward, unrehearsed, and often bumbling prayer. The stage of prayer we must all go through. The stage of prayer we can even feel guilty or embarrassed about (simple and self-centered as we realize our prayers sound after the words have come out of our mouths)! Yet, as Richard Foster will assure us in this selection, taken from his book, "Prayer, Finding the Heart's True Home," it is a stage that cannot be avoided. And to our surprise, one we may need to return to. So, whether you are one who has rarely rayed and would like to learn how to pray, or consider yourself to be a seasoned "prayer warrior," this book is helpful, instructive and practical. This thought comes to you from the very first chapter on, "Simple Prayer" or "Beginning Prayer." Enjoy.
"Pray
as you can, not as you can't."
Dom
Chapman
"We
yearn for prayer and hide from prayer... We believe prayer is something we
should do, even something we want to do, but it seems like a chasm stands
between us and actually praying... We are not quite sure what holds us back. Of
course, we are busy with work and family obligations, but that is only a smoke
screen. Our busyness seldom keeps us from eating or sleeping or making
love. No, there is something deeper and more profound keeping us in check... It
is the notion -- almost universal among us modern high-level achievers -- that
we have to do everything "just right" in order to pray. That is,
before we can really pray, our lives need some fine tuning, or we need to know
more about how to pray, or we need to study the philosophical questions
surrounding pray, or we need to have a better grasp of the great
traditions of prayer. And on and on it goes. It isn't that these are
wrong concerns, or there is never a time to deal with them. But our problem is
that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto
mechanics. Something that puts us in the "on-top" position, where we
are competent and in control...
I
used to think that I needed to get all my motives straightened out before I
could pray. I would examine what I had just prayed and think to myself,
"How utterly foolish and self-centered; I can't pray this way!" And
so I would determine never to pray again until my motives were pure... But the
practical effect of all this internal soul-searching was to completely paralyze
my ability to pray. The truth of the matter is we all come to prayer with a
tangled mess of motives -- altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful,
loving and bitter. Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel
the good from the bad, the pure from the impure. But what I have come to
see is that God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. We do not
have to be bright, or pure, or filled with faith, or anything. That is what
grace means, and not only are we saved by grace, we live in it as well. And we
pray by it (Ephesians 2:1-10, Romans 5:2, Romans 8:26-27).
Jesus
[in the Lord's Prayer] reminds us that prayer is a little like children coming
to their parents. Our children come to us with the craziest requests at
times! Often we are grieved by the meanness and selfishness in their
requests, but we would be all the more grieved if they never came to us at
all. We are simply glad they do come -- mixed motives and all. This is
precisely how it is with prayer. We will never have pure enough motives, or be
good enough, or know enough in order to pray rightly. We must simply set
all these concerns aside and begin praying. In fact, it is in the very act of
prayer itself -- the intimate, ongoing interaction with God -- that these
matters are cared for in due time.
What
I am trying to say is that God receives us just as we are and accepts our
prayers just as they are. In the same way that a small child cannot draw a bad
picture, so a child of God cannot offer a bad prayer. So we are brought
to the most basic, the most primary form of prayer -- Simple Prayer -- where we
bring ourselves before God just as we are, warts and all. Like children
before a loving father, we open our hearts and make our requests. We do not try
to sort things out, the good from the bad. We simply and unpretentiously share
our concerns and make our petitions. We tell God, for example, how frustrated
we are with the co-worker at the office or the neighbor down the street. We ask
for food, favorable weather, and good health. In a very real sense, WE are the
focus of simple prayer. Our needs, our wants, and our concerns dominate our
prayer experience. Our prayers are shot through with plenty of pride, conceit,
vanity, pretentiousness, haughtiness, and general all-around
egocentricity. No doubt there is also magnanimity, generosity,
unselfishness, concern for others and universal goodwill.
We
make mistakes -- lots of them. We sin; we fall down, often -- but each time we
get up and begin again. We pray again. We seek to follow God again. And again
our insolence and self-indulgence defeat us. Never mind. We confess and
begin again... and again... and again... In "Simple Prayer" the good,
the bad and the ugly are all mixed together... Abraham prayed this way, as did
Joseph, Joshua, Hannah, David, Gideon, Ruth, Peter, James, John and a host of
other biblical luminaries. Simple Prayer involves ordinary people bringing
ordinary concerns to a loving and compassionate Father. We do not pretend to be
more holy than we are, more pure, or more saintly than we actually are. We do
not try to conceal our conflicting and contradictory motives from God -- or
ourselves. And in this posture, we pour out our heart to the God who is greater
than our heart and knows all things (I John 3:20).
Jesus
calls us to Simple Prayer when he urges us to ask for our daily bread. As John
Dalrymple rightly observes, "We never outgrow this kind of prayer, because
we never outgrow the needs that give rise to it." There is a temptation,
especially by the "sophisticated," to despise this most elementary
way of praying. They seek to skip over Simple Prayer in the hopes of advancing
to more "mature" expressions of prayer. They smile at the egotistical
asking, asking, asking, of so many. Grandly they speak of avoiding
"self-centered prayer" in favor of "others-centered
prayer." But what these people fail to see, however, is that Simple
Prayer is necessary, even essential, in the spiritual life. The only way we
move beyond "self-centered prayer" (if indeed we ever do) is by going
through it, not by making a detour around it... When we pray, genuinely pray,
the real condition of our heart is revealed. This is as it should be. This is
when God truly begins to work with us. The adventure is just beginning."
I
love to hear new believers pray. They often pause searching for the right word,
don't use flowery language, and say exactly what comes to their mind (that is,
if they are thankfully freed from feeling the need to try to impress others).
To me, there are few things more beautiful than getting to listen in on a
new-born Christian's first attempt to speak with their Savior. It's like
listening to my grandchildren (when they were two and three) praying at the
table before dinner! Who could not love it despite the odd nature of many
of their requests!? So with the adult who has recently come to
Christ, Simple Prayer is a phase one must go through, not seek to avoid. They
can do no other because they know no other. And to encourage them to
pretend to be what they're not, kills true prayer in its beginnings. We learn
more about ourselves (and thus grow) by hearing what comes out of our mouths
and hearts when we pray, than being told by others what should be coming out of
them.
When
I was first asked (as a new Christian) to pray with others, I refused. I
didn't know what to pray, or how to pray, or what to pray for. I didn't
know what was selfish or non-selfish, the right things to pray for or the
wrong things to pray for -- so I didn't pray at all. Yet I
thank God they were persistent, for I did finally consent, and have come to
cherish praying with others. (Though I must confess they did have to first
assure me they would not judge me if I said something "wrong," or said
it the "wrong way," or stumbled over my words, or used no
"thee's" or "Thous" or other fancy religious words or
phrases -- and they didn't -- or if they did, it never came out of their
mouths!)
In
His Service, Pastor Jeff
