Thursday Theology: Discipline of Prayer

“Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. Of all the Spiritual Disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father. Meditation introduces us to the inner life, fasting is an accompanying means, study transforms our minds, but it is the Discipline of prayer that brings us into the deepest and highest work of the human spirit.” – Richard J. Foster

Nearly all Christians pray, in fact nearly all people pray. The things that most never ask are: Why and How do we pray? Herein I shall, with the help of Mr. Foster, give answer to these questions that should absolutely be asked by every follower of Christ.

Why do we pray?

There are many reasons to pray. The greatest reason of all is that it is the most direct way in which man connects to his Creator. Prayer is the method through which man can go before God and ask “What do you want of me?” This search for God’s will is directly related to the second major reason for prayer: Intercession. Prayers of intercession are most commonly prayers for healing or protection but can take any form of aiding another person.

How do we pray?

Before getting into the specifics, first let me say: Do NOT be ashamed to ask this question! The Apostles asked it! Like all things in life, prayer is learned. Feel free to question the way you have been taught so far, experiment, even fail at it! There are literally infinite ways to pray, and ones that work for me, may not work for you! However, there are some things that you can do to enhance your prayer life.

1) LISTEN – Without exception every single one of the great Contemplative Christians has written at length about the importance of listening to God. Think of prayer as you would a radio tuner; while reading this dozens of radio, cellular, and various other forms of waves bounced around you, but you did not notice them because you were not tuned in; prayer is setting your tuner to God. Just like the radio however, if you talk all the time, the music can get drowned out, so be still, be calm, be quiet and listen.

2) SIMPLIFY – Remember that the Bible tells us to approach our King as children would their father. Your prayers should be open, honest, and trustful to God (trust me, He already knows the crap you want to hide). Also, pray with the complete expectancy that your prayer will be granted; think of a child asking their parent for a sandwich; the child feels no need to stash the food in case there would be none tomorrow, they have full expectancy that a sandwich will be given whenever it is asked, nor do they need to ask in a complex way, “Hey dad, I need some food,” suffices. A child is open with how they speak, honest about what they need, and trusting that it will be provided. Pray as such.

Remember the point of prayer is to talk with God. Ask Him to heal or protect someone, ask for His guidance, listen to Him speak, even change His mind! Just talk to Him.

Some things to be aware of:
1) Do not wait until you feel you are perfect and know everything about prayer to embrace it! Those great Contemplative thinkers I talked about earlier? Most of them wrote books on how amazing it was to continually be discovering new aspects of their prayer lives, so did the Apostles! Do not worry if you are good enough to pray about something, or for someone, the very act of earnest prayer is proof of enough faith!

2) Prayer = Warfare. Never forget that the Enemy prowls the Earth like a raging lion. Pray for yourself and others that the Enemy will not succeed in his efforts. Pray for people who are angry or depressed or busy; just a quick prayer asking Christ to fill them with peace and love is more powerful than you can imagine.

Now the intelligent person is forced to ask: What if this whole “prayer” thing coming true is all just coincidence? I’ll grant that it could be, but, as Archbishop William Temple notes, the coincidences occur much more frequently when I pray.

Remember that all of these concepts and some of the text come directly from Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. I encourage you to employ these ideas over the next week (and the rest of your life) and if you do I would love to hear about your experiences! Next Thursday I’ll be talking about fasting, something that has greatly fallen out of practice within the vast majority of Christian lives