Prayer: A convo with God or just another part of the Spiritual To-Do List?

So, what’s your Prayer Diet like? Do you subsist on a quick Lord’s Prayer to top and tail the day with a few mumbled Amens in the responsorial bits on a Sunday service? Are you stuck in a rut; doing the same entreaties but not really feeling your heart, let alone your soul is in it? Or perhaps, in spite of prayer marathons with a couple of night vigils, group fasts and extended praise-worship sessions thrown in for good measure, (usually only when the going is at its toughest, a bit like going to the gym for three hours for a week as you have a party outfit to fit into) you are left  doubting that your prayers will be answered at all?

Like any relationship, our walk with God can lull, get bogged down by routine, and suffer from preconceived misconceptions. You know the sort, when we second guess the other person’s response without waiting to hear it, or worse enter into an interaction, already spoiling for a fight even when one isn’t offered. Prayer is the principle way we connect with God. Jesus both did it himself and commanded us to do it too, but one can lose the spark in their prayer life and worry if it will ever return.

Location can make all the difference to making this happen in your prayer life. I have been helped along on my journey by the opening of the new 24-7 Prayer room at HTB. 24-7 is a movement founded by Pete Greig and has spread across the globe: you can discover more by clicking on the link at the end of this post. But back to the prayer room: this is no damp cupboard of a room, but a beautifully appointed series of spaces housed in an unassuming port-a-cabin on the church’s main site on Brompton Road. I went along for the first time with Persia Lawson, founder of an organisation called Addictive Daughter and a lady who definitely rings true with the name of this blog. What we discovered was that our hour felt like five minutes and we were drawn to worshipping in a different way; one moment we were singing songs the next praying to God on comfy floor cushions, and finally writing our entreaties on an enormous whiteboard. In a weird way and dare I say it for fear of sounding sacrilegious, it was an opportunity to remember why one fell in love with Jesus in the first place. And why in an increasingly secularised world, one continues to follow him.

Expectation is also pivotal in our prayer life. The oft quoted passage regarding prayer was made by Jesus himself and in it are some key ingredients to making for a better and more engaging prayer time:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7: 7-8

Whilst I have never been a fan of prosperity gospel type ‘name it to claim it’ practises, there is a lot to be said for actually asking God for the desires of your heart. Often, especially those who have been Christos for a while there is an embarrassment to admitting to needs and wants, that it is somehow ‘not spiritual’ to ask God for stuff when there is a war going on in a far corner of the world, or the inevitable situation of others in seemingly worse situations that yourself. But Jesus says it clearly, ask and it will be given to you. God wants us in our prayer life to bring everything before him: our wants and our needs, our dreams and ambitions, our wins and our losses. The fact that he already knows them is not the point,  what is pertinent is that when we choose to share them with him, we are not only being  honest and trusting, essential to developing any relationship, but also expecting a response. We ask because our expectations, stem from a belief in God’s loving concern for our situation, not that somehow saying it out aloud will ‘jinx it’ or that worse, God has no interest in us at all.

Sometimes prayers do not get answered as we would want or seem to have got a heavenly ‘None for you today or indeed ever’ reply. It is here that that seek and knocking part in the passage help. Seeking can sometimes mean we discover something entirely unexpected, the true answer as it were rather than our preferred one. Sometimes the discovery can seem unwelcome, but here is the nub, without a seeking heart in one’s prayer life there is no spiritual development. Relationships hold no safety nets, but that does not mean they are any less rewarding or one should avoid them at all costs, whether it be with God or indeed with each other. When Jesus talks of knocking he is of course referring to the spiritual gift of perseverance. Periods of challenges and knock-backs are there for us to develop this gift, one that ultimately makes us better people, more Christ-like, as he too endured on the cross. I hope I am not alone when I say that many times I have felt too upset, angry even, to seek or knock as it were. Sometimes I have felt a heavenly ambivalence to my situation, or that I seem to be getting seconds and thirds of Perseverance Training. But again Jesus says, the door will, eventually, even if it feels like an eternity be opened to you.  And what a welcome one will have too!

You see, prayer is just a prelude to the real thing, an eternity spent in the bosom of God’s love.  A father who wants to give good gifts to all, where there are no favourites or haves and have-nots. Where we all by His grace and mercy become Have-Lots-And-Lots, because abiding in Him is bigger than any challenge, need, drama or situation in this life and a whole lot more fun to boot. So let’s get on our knees or up on our feet, silently, or shouting out loud and wait for the Divinely Authored Magic to Happen! I'm actually, rather excited.

www.24-7prayer.com

www.addictivedaughter.wordpress.com

In Search of the New

Four days in and the New Year greetings are already wearing as thin as bargain basement tinsel. My latest ‘Happy New Year’ to someone barely registered a grunt in return, and this on a Friday when you would have thought that the short week has meant the return to work doesn’t feel too brutal!

Perhaps, my salutations were delivered to a fellow ‘de-toxer’; I have embarked on one myself and apart from the frankly revolting colour of the ‘elixir’ (dirt brown is a kinder way of describing it) that is promising to make me feel lighter and brighter come Day 10 (I always go for the abridged version of these things), I too am feeling far from my best. However, for those of us who are actually Christo, there is still one more major event to celebrate in the season marking our Lord and Saviour’s birth: the arrival of the Magi.

 

The Magi’s story is an interesting one: they are not there on the night of Jesus’ birth itself, but come later (scholars have argued forever about exactly how much later, but let’s not digress too much or spoil the tableau set in Nativity Plays everywhere of Shepherds and Wise Men all rocking up to the stable on the same night), having noted the Star of Bethlehem and decided to follow it:

 

 

“Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Matthew 2:2

 

 

There is something terribly modern about the Magi’s story with its quest for the new king that has been indicated by an extraordinary astronomical event. At this time of year many of us are looking for something new: whether it is a health regime that finally gives us that hot body, a hobby that broadens intellectual and social vistas, or a job that’s more in line with our passions. Furthermore we all seek ‘signs’ that will affirm that yes, we are on the right path and that this is the best course of action to take. For the Magi, the sign was literally in the heavens, but what is interesting is that they chose to follow it: after all, these were not Jewish religious leaders, but foreign wise men who probably practised a different religion and had different norms and concerns. It was not them who had the benefit of ancient prophets stating:

 

 

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Micah 5:2

 

 

However, it was the Magi, who are first quoted as both recognising Jesus’ kingship and declaring it openly. God is literally for everyone, regardless of where you’re form. Furthermore, they came with gold, frankincense and myrrh, gifts that both reflected this truth regarding kingship, pointed at what was to come in Jesus’ life and gave an all-important splash of exotic to proceedings (did anyone give you Myrrh this year?) . There is also a sense of certainty in the Magi’s declaration. Not for them a gentle meander through life, trying to figure out the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ but directed action, even if it took them to a foreign land, seeking a foreign king who they felt convicted to worship.

 

 

The traditional name for this coming Sunday in the church calendar is Epiphany; which derives from the Ancient Greek word for ‘manifestation’. It is a time when we are meant to celebrate apart from the Magi’s arrival the fact that through Jesus, God literally appears in this world. For those of us living post Jesus’s ascent to heaven, it is also a time to consider his return, when once again he will be made manifest in the world

 

 

In the meantime, just in case Jesus’ return should not coincide with our mortal lives, we can have a go at making Christ’s light manifest in our everyday activities. There’s no need for fancy courses, tonics or roadmaps although it is definitely a lot harder a resolution to keep than most. But wow, what a transformation, if you try  to reflect some of his glory,  and startaffecting those with your God given light,  your very own version of Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar (the names of the Magi in case you were wondering) might just rock up to bear witness to your transformation. However, bling and  scent are not guaranteed…