"Talking to God"

Jesus often spent time alone praying and taught his disciples to do the same. But like many of us the disciples were confused and had difficulty with their prayers. This difficulty even showed up in the way they carried out their ministry. When attempting to heal a young man they failed and the distraught father brought his son to Jesus. Later the disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" He said to them, "This kind can come out only through prayers."
(NRS Mark 9:28-29)
Prayer is the most effective way we have been given to communicate directly to God. If we don't pray our lives and our ministry suffers. This shouldn't be a surprise since it is God who gives us strength and direction. Prayer has to be at the center of all we do as a Resurrection people.

Prayer is not a mysterious gift of a few special people. It is something that can be easily taught. For many people it is a natural thing, but for others, me included, I need to work at it a little. The elements of prayer are fairly simple. Find a place where there is peace and quiet. As you sit down and try to pray you will probably find your mind overwhelmed by all the things you need to do and a lot that you really don't need to do. Just by sitting down and taking the time to pray you have already set your priorities. This is half the battle; most of us rarely get that far. The rest of the battle is focus rather than will. How can you settle your mind down so it reflects the peacefulness of your surroundings? Just saying it takes discipline is no help at all. In fact it can make you feel worse than you already do.

Taking a look at the way we use the word discipline can help here. Far from the punishment many might think, discipline is training that we expect to help us better ourselves. It can be a physical discipline, or as in this case a spiritual discipline. A discipline also involves a method. For a prayer there are a few things that can help you get started. If you are going to pray for other people or for yourself and your family keeping a prayer journal or list is very helpful. This kind of prayer is called intercessory prayer. It is always work. It can be very satisfying but it does take effort. The journal can be simple or complex deepening on your personality. For me it is a simple list on my palm pilot that includes a person's name, the prayer request and a date. I also keep track of when and how a prayer was answered. That way I can see God at work. Often it is easier to see God's presence when you look back than it is when you look into the future.

Another method or discipline is using a focus point. A knotted prayer rope like the Eastern Orthodox use or Catholic rosary are two examples of this kind of prayer aid. This method uses a set of short prayers that are repeated corresponding with different beads or knots. The fringes on a Jewish prayer shawl could also be used this way. These prayers are used to help us focus, to quiet our mind and heart so we can find a place where we can take our heartfelt prayers into God's presence and listen for a response. Remember deeper forms of prayer take time. Don't expect to be Saint Paul in your first month. There are also some common problems that we can have with our prayer life, which a discipline teaches us to avoid. The first is simply not praying. Saint James has some real practical statements about this. He says bluntly "You have not because you ask not." Jesus tells us constantly we need to pray, James is just telling us not to blame God if we don't.

Another problem James talks about is prayer that goes unanswered. God is generous and blesses us greatly but it is clear in the Bible that we are blessed to be a blessing to others. Using the blessing of prayer for selfish purposes is an exercise in futility. James says; "you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures." Prayers that are answered are prayers that reflect that heart if God within us. It is pretty cheeky to pray selfishly in Jesus name.

These few thoughts on prayers can help us to find true Christian Spirituality and become the person God has created us to be. Don't be too hard on yourself though. When you observe a person who is disciplined and lives the kind of Christian life most of us would like to. It almost seems as if they leave a trail of light behind them. It can be pretty discouraging when we examine our own spirituality in that light.

Remember that a comet, whose tail spreads glory across the heavens, is at its core just a dirty ball of ice. Don't sell yourself short, you can't see the trail of light that is your life. Only God knows the true worth of a child of God. Follow Jesus advice to all his disciples; "Pray always and don't loose heart."

Pastor Jim Bliss


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