The Discipline of Prayer

Of all the Spiritual Disciplines, prayer is the most central
because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.

Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

There are many things that I could write on prayer, so I am going to take a paragraph to explain my beliefs on prayer in the attempt to give you a clearer understanding of this spiritual discipline. To properly understand this article, we must agree on the following three items:

1. Prayer is powerful (James 5). The Apostle James tells us that the prayer "of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16). Yet, as he goes on to say, many times our prayers are not answered because we ask with wrong motives (James 4:3). To ask with the right motives, means to have our heart and mind in line with God's will for our lives as well as for His world at large.

2. God hears our prayers. The Psalms are filled with references to God hearing our prayers and answering our cries for help (Psalm 34:17; 55:17; 69:33; 145:19: etc). Further, the Apostle John tells us in Revelations 8 that the prayers of the saints silenced heaven. God listens when we pray.

3. Prayer changes things. The first recorded prayer of any great length is recorded in Genesis 14 where Abram prays to God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Walter Wink points out: "Biblical prayer is impertinent, persistent, shameless, indecorous. It is more like haggling in an oriental bazaar than the polite monologues of the churches" (Wink in Ortberg, 95). The result of this lesson is clear: Prayer changes things.

With that said, let us begin . . .

For many, prayer remains a mystery. An unrelenting quest of how to communicate with an unseen God. Some have faired well and have emerged with a peace that God both hears and answers their prayers. Yet others have not faired so well coming away with feelings of isolation and dejection. In times of crisis, prayer is easy and is as precious as the air we breath; yet in times of plenty, prayer is often difficult, burdensome and awkward. In today's fast-paced society, who has time to stop and pray?

Yet, real prayer is life-changing. It is the deepest and highest work of the human spirit. Richard Foster believes that, "to pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives" (Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 33).

The fourteenth century Byzantine monk, Andre Louf, describes prayer using the analogy of a lute player:

The lute-player bends over his instrument and listens attentively to the tune, while his fingers manipulate the plectrum and make the strings vibrate in full-toned harmony. The lute has turned into music; and the man who strums upon it is taken out of himself, for the music is soft and entrancing (Louf out of Foster Spiritual Classics, 31).

Foster comments on Louf's image saying:

You see, for the beginning musician playing the lute is difficult indeed. The beginner faces a host of issues all at once: how to hold the lute, how to manipulate the plectrum, what tune to play, and the need to memorize it, and so forth. But for the master musician, playing the lute is sheer ease and joy. All of the actions necessary to make a beautiful melody flow effortlessly from ingrained habits of mind and muscle. As Father Louf notes, the accomplished lute player "is taken out of himself, for the music is soft and entrancing." With this image Father Louf is helping us see that prayer is both difficult and easy. In the beginning we are struggling with a host of issues: how we as finite creatures approach the infinite God, what we are to say and how we are to say it, how we are to listen in return, and so forth. But we can rest easy with these difficulties of ours, for we know that over time a kind of practiced experience will develop within us deeply ingrained habits of prayer (Foster, Spiritual Classics, 35).

Prayer is powerful and changes things. Foster further comments that, "The closer we come to. . . God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ" (Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 33).

So how do we pray. Consider Jesus disciples request of Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). The disciples were Jews and would have known all about prayer. They would have experienced it and participated in it all of their lives, just as many of us have. Yet they saw something remarkably different in Jesus' prayers so they asked Him to instruct them. Maybe we should begin in much the same way.

Here are a few guidelines compiled from Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline and John Ortberg's The Life You've Always Wanted to assist you in further developing your prayer life:

1. Begin by asking God to assist you.

2. Commit to pray for 5 minutes per day. This may seem impossibly short, but it is better to establish a short time than to begin with a longer one that you give up on later. Pray for the same amount of time each day. It should not be longer on one day because it feels nice and shorter on another as the mood takes you. Even if you feel great enthusiasm and want to go longer on one day, please restrict yourself to only five minutes.

3. Choose a specific time each day to have prayer. We are busy people this may seem impossible, but if you allow the time to vary, it has a way of evaporating altogether.

4. Choose a specific place to pray. It is very helpful to pray in the same place day after day. But choose a place that is free from interruptions (no pager, cell phones, TV, radios, etc.).

5. Choose a time of day that you are at your best. Not everyone is a morning person. Choose a time when you can focus, stay awake, and can be uninterrupted.

6. Prepare your heart before entering into your place of prayer. A mind that is distracted by the external troubles is hardly prepared for prayer. Learn to calm your mind and heart (Huggett out of Foster, Spiritual Classics, paraphrased, 13).

7. Begin with what Ortberg and Foster refer to as "simple prayer." Do not force yourself to pray about things that may seem more noble (world peace, starving children in Africa). Simple prayer is about praying what is really on your heart and not what you wish were (or think should be) in your heart (Ortberg, The Life You've Always Wanted, paraphrased, 100).

8. Take 3 or 4 minutes after you have finished praying to reflect on your prayer. This is not actually part of your prayer, it is only a review.

How did the prayer get started? Were you aware of God's presence, or was there a sense that you were simply thinking by yourself? Did any parts of the prayer seem especially "alive" as you prayed? Did you have times of strong convictions or emotion, and if so, what were they? Did they seem to be moving you closer to God, or farther away? What difficulties did you encounter? Did you feel tired or bored or experience other barriers? Did you find your mind wandering, and if so, to what? What were you praying over when this happened? How did you respond?

Did you have any sense of being called to respond or carry out some action? If so, what was it? What was the general "tone" of your prayer: Warm and loving? Difficult or painful? Dark? Reassuring? Sobering? Foggy? Write down the results of this review, as that can help you learn from your prayers over time (Ortberg, The Life You've Always Wanted, 103). A quick word of caution: Prayer is not something that can be mastered overnight. It will take years of practice (with both succeeding and failing attempts) to master. We will all get discouraged, bored, and be tempted to give up. When this happens, don't play games with your pattern or skip a day and plan on "making up" tomorrow. Consistently try to pray everyday. However, when you do miss a day, only pray for the 5 minutes that you committed to pray. You can't really make up the time (Ortberg, The Life You've Always Wanted, paraphrased, 97).