Prayer Part 1

“In your prayers, above everything else, beware of limiting God, not only through unbelief but also by thinking you know exactly what He can do.  Learn to expect the unexpected, beyond all that you ask or think.  
So each time you intercede through prayer, first be quiet and worship God in His glory.  Think of what He can do, how He delights in Christ His Son, and of your place in Him–then expect great things.” –Andrew Murray.

I recently read this quote in one of my favorite devotionals, and it reminded me of how limited we get sometimes.  As I’ve been dwelling on the idea of prayer, I’m recording my thoughts not for everyone else’s benefit, mostly, but for my own.  I seem to be forgetful at times of things God is teaching me, and it’s good for me to record my journey, so that down the road, when I have forgotten the lesson, I can look back, and hopefully skip over the painful mistakes that I make the first, second, or tenth time around.

One lesson I do remember from my freshman year of college, is realizing how much God could do in my life if I just bothered to ask him.  If I just bothered to tell him what was on my mind.  If I would just stop censoring my prayers to be only filled with “spiritual stuff” so it sounded pretty, than God could start dealing with the ugly things about me.

I’ve found, that my favorite way to pray is with a good chunk of time.  I’ve tried multiple times to get up early and pray in the morning, but I always end up falling asleep and start my day out defeated.  My mind tends to zone out that time of day.  I’m sure there’s a way to retrain my body to be somewhat alert during this holy prayer time of day, but I have yet to achieve it.  Some of my most amazing times in prayer has been in the quiet of the evening.  When my brain is racing and won’t shut off.  When I am weary, or burdened with thoughts or events of the day.  I will not argue that it is better to start your day with prayer, but I will allow myself the simple fact that it is not wrong to pray at night, either!

Why do we pray?  If we knew why, maybe we’d do it more.  I remember being on my first mission trip, and being required to spend 30 minutes every day having quiet devotions.  The first week I was at a complete loss to know what to do.  I started reading through 1 and 2 Samuel, and keeping a small prayer request slip.  I always seemed to have more time than things to say.  I was confused how I was to spend this full 30 minutes of silence.

What is funny, is that by the end of the mission trip, about 7 weeks later, 30 minutes seemed painfully too short to spend with God.  I don’t think I would have been satisfied with even an hour!  Likewise, when I joined with a ministry while I was living in Chicago, my first job was to be one of the prayer partners who stayed back at the “base” and prayed for those walking the streets in the middle of the night, and ministering to the women who worked there.  It was often 2 1/2-3 hours in the middle of the night that we were to stay up and pray.  I mean, there’s only so many times you can say “Keep them safe” and “Open their hearts” or “Give them the words to say.”  You can only say it in so many creative ways, or so many times before your eyes start getting heavy at 2am, and you know you have at least another hour of prayer to go.

Do we think that prayer does something, and if it does do something, than why doesn’t God do it without prayer?  Are we that influential on the unchanging God?  Does what we have to say really matter?  Will God forget something if we don’t remind him?  The very way that we approach prayer can be so belittling to our idea of God that the very act of prayer seems silly.

I’ve noticed that we tend to analyze everything.  (At least I do!) I don’t know if it’s the western world, America, or just humankind.  We like to know exactly how something happens, when something happens, the process of how things happen.  I was reminded of this the awhile back in Sunday school when we were discussing Christ’s baptism.  Theologians love to debate when a person is actually saved, what baptism actually does…and it’s kinda like an American looking in on a foreign wedding that takes place over the course of 7 days and asking “Now on which day are the couple officially considered married?”  Well, that whole process is getting married.  That culture does not divide it up as ours does.  Sometimes, I think we ask the wrong questions.

What I mean to be getting at is that I don’t think “why do we pray?” is bad question, but we ought to think relationally about prayer rather than scientifically.  That does not mean that we cannot test God, or ask him scientific questions, or that science and God do not mix.  However, the purpose of prayer does not lie in scientific thought, but in terms of our relationship with God. 

I think one of the best books I’ve read on prayer, is in the Spiritual Disciplines.  Although, there are about 3 other books on my shelf on prayer that I haven’t gotten through yet.  In our freedom of the current spiritual trend of “God loves me just how I am and I don’t have to do anything at all” trend in this climate, we have, as a culture, forgotten what a spiritual discipline is.  The statement above in quotes is one of the most irksome thought to me for several reasons.  First off, God asks me to come just as I am, but he does intend to change me.  You cannot encounter God and not be changed.  The very idea that God loves you just the way you are, faults and all, is just hogwash.  God loves you despite your faults, not because of them and sanctification will take place.  Somehow we get in our minds that unconditional love means you never have to change.  Well, you don’t have to change for God to love you, but when God gets a hold of you, you will be changed.  That’s just a fact.

Second, is the notion that God will never ask anything of us.  Let’s think about that for a minute.  We don’t earn God’s love.  We don’t earn our salvation.  That is very foundational to our faith and should not be argued.  However, I feel like we as theologians bring issues of justification and blend them with issues of sanctification.  Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say you have an arranged marriage.  You show up for your wedding day, and bam!  You’re man and wife.  That is justification.  It’s the beginning of a new state, a new mode, a new life.  With that new, and I’d imagine, intense beginning, there is somewhat of a responsibility to know your husband.  Talk to him, get to know him.  Try to figure out how to please him.  If you fail in this, will your marriage be void?  Certainly not!  Will he divorce you?  No.  Will there be blessings to be had with blood, sweat and tears and honest to goodness work poured into this relationship?  Without a doubt.  You see, spiritual disciplines are not earning salvation.  It’s not the process of getting married.  It’s the process of being married.  Of sanctification. 

Even in that work of cultivating the relationship, in that sanctification, God equips us to do the work.  We can’t do it on our own.  God is the one who strengthens us to do it.  Isn’t his generosity overwhelming sometimes?

Prayer, is one of the spiritual disciplines of knowing God better.  The purpose is not just to bring our requests, although that is part of it.  The purpose is not confession, although that is also a part of it.  I think if I had to boil down my own thoughts on it, it would be that the purpose is worship with all the complexities that heavy word has.  It’s taking the time to recognize who God is, and who I am in relationship to him.  This should drive me to confession, as being fully aware of God’s glory should bring about humility in me.  The rest, I think, is just sharing my life with him.  I think it would be pretty impossible to grow intimate with a good God, and not be blessed, so blessings would come from this.

Now, that’s pretty simplified.  My best prayer times are started in just sitting and dwelling on who God is.  Do not underestimate the power of this one simple exercise.  Reminisce with God what he has done for you, where he has brought you from.  Meditate on his greatness.  Think of his creation.  Sometimes I go to prayer and just get stuck here and never get around to my requests.  It’s my favorite spot to get stuck.

Sometimes, I’ll admit, I’m proud enough that I don’t know what to confess.  I honestly don’t think of some nagging sin.  Or, I like to think of them rather as “struggles” or “issues” or whatever fancy word it is categorized as in my head.  It’s at this point that I like to ask God what he wants to talk to me about that day.  Sometimes, he catches me totally off guard.  This is usually a pretty fast part of the prayer time, as God never seems to make me wait to hear what in my life he wants to change.  The part that takes awhile is me justifying myself to him, or trying to explain why I did what I did that displeased him.  I barter, defend, justify, or sometimes I’m wise enough to skip to the end and humble myself before him.  He always seems to get me there eventually, but the time that takes really depends on my level of pride that day.

I’ve been thinking about prayer lately.  I’ve been thinking about my lack of it, and my struggle to find time for it.  I think about how many days it’s reduced to shooting up a “God help him,” or “Could you help me out here, God?” throughout the day.  Sometimes a simple “keep us safe.”  Somehow if I do that throughout the day I think that I’m practicing the presence of God, and that is good.

I’m not saying it’s not good, or not enough.  It probably has some benefit, and how does one define “enough” when God is enough all by himself?  I will say that type of praying does not give the same benefit as time spent with God.  I think that’s what God was talking about when He said ‘if my people call on me…I will heal their land.”  I think that it’s not a matter of us praying for our land that will remind God to do it.  I think God is waiting for us to put him back in the place of priority. 

So let me challenge all of us to spend some time with God this week.  Stick in on your calendar or schedule if you need to.  I feel like my time is always interrupted, even at night.  Last night, my prayer time was over the coarse of a diaper change and feeding.  My mind was on him, though, and I was exceedingly blessed.  However, it had been weeks if not months since I have done this.  This is another area where I seem to be so easily distracted.

Let’s return to God this week.  Not with any agenda but to worship.  Not with a list of requests, but an honest heart that sugarcoats nothing.  Let’s spend more time listening and less talking. Let’s do our best not to rush, but simply enjoy the thought of him.  When you do, share how God ministered to you with someone else.  Talk about how good God is.  Just remember, you cannot encounter God and not be changed.