Following CitySalt’s recent sermon series on prayer, the blog team is leaning in to share our own perspectives and learnings on the topic. Join us as we explore personal discoveries of what prayer is and what it was never intended to be, and we pursue deeper alignment with how God invites us to communicate with him.
As a kid growing up in an Episcopalian home, I learned two prayers. Not more, not less, not ever venturing off into the unknown of conversational prayer. Rote. Memorized. Genuine, I think, but said so often that you didn’t really need to think about what you were praying. One was said before supper and this prayer was always said by my father. It went, “Please God bless this food to our use and us to Thy service, for Christ’s sake. Amen.” Nice. Short. No real thanks for the food, but hoping that it might help us be healthy so we could serve God (who knew what that meant?!). The second prayer was at bedtime when we were taught to pray for ourselves, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Oh, Lordy. Every night we reminded ourselves that we were going to die, and maybe it’s even tonight! I guess you could call that a fear-based prayer.
The next prayer I learned before my full confirmation into God’s Episcopal family was the Lord’s Prayer. Again, memorized and kind of rote, but beautiful and meaningful nonetheless. The “Our Father…”, I’m sure you all know this one so I won’t repeat it.
So these are what I thought of as prayer until I was 18 years old when I was introduced to the living Jesus, accepted him and started to go to church to learn more about him. Pretty quickly I entered the world where you asked God for things: if you needed something (more money) or hoped for a certain outcome (a passing grade in your Math class) or wanted your sick friend or grandmother to be healed (from anything from a cold to a deadly disease). These prayers were based on scriptures like:
Matthew 21:22
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.
Mark 11:23
I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea’, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
James 5:16
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
These are the kinds of prayers I prayed until reading a book in the 1990’s entitled Listening Prayer by Leanne Payne. Learning and practicing prayers that weren’t necessarily about asking God for something (though that could still be part of it), my wife and I started to expect God to speak to us if we only would wait and actually listen for a response. This was a radical shift and greatly increased our faith in, and closeness to, God. This expanded our awareness of God’s presence with us at all times and all places. This kind of prayer, added to the intercessory kind, established a genuine conversation with God. It was a wonderful revelation! But I remember one time long after we’d been practicing this kind of listening prayer, when I asked God for his council on something and I was waiting to hear his answer. What I heard him say to me was, “Well, what do YOU think😊”. I include a smiley face because I heard this with a light-hearted attitude on God’s part, wanting to teach me that he’d given me the ability to reason things out and that whatever decision I made, he’d be with me to guide the next step and teach me from the experience. That was empowering!
Then there came a very difficult time in my life when I felt spiritually depleted, unable to read the Bible with any openness, or to pray with any conviction. Too many prayers had gone unanswered. A wise counselor encouraged me to simply “float in the sea of grace”, not attempting to read, craft prayers or do anything else. This was so powerful and just what I needed to recognize that God is always with us, upholding us in his grace, no matter how well or passionately we prayed. In fact, this silent floating became the prayer itself. Oh, how freeing and expanding that was…and still is.
Another profound teaching I was introduced to proclaimed that God’s Creation was actually the “first gospel”. Before Jesus came in bodily form to this earth, the whole universe, including the heavens, the earth, the waters, the animals and we humans proclaimed the glory of God:
Psalm 19:1-4
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
For many, simply walking out in the woods, camping in the mountains, swimming in the ocean, watching the sunrise… all these things are prayers if you acknowledge the presence of God as the Creator of all things. I believe he delights in the times we delight in his natural creation.
The point of this blog entry is really to contend that prayers, like so many spiritual practices, are not black or white, right or wrong, good or bad. Prayer is simpler than that. It is just finding the best way to commune with God at any particular season in our lives. Don’t judge it! Experiment with different forms of it! Practice whatever allows you the most closeness to the God who loves you!
About the Author
John lives in Pleasant Hill with his dog, Gunnar, and a multitude of guests who enjoy the peace and beauty of the Cascade foothills. With three children and three grandchildren all living in Oregon, he is continually blessed with their company and the good food that always accompanies their get-togethers!