Prayer is defined by the dictionary as “a devotion, a
plea, an appeal, a petition, an invocation”. A prayer is each of those words
and so much more, for prayer links us to God. It is in prayer that we lift up
to God what is on our minds and in our hearts: our joy, our fear, our
gratitude, our sorrow, our confusion, our anger, our trust, our hope.
It is easy, too easy, to turn prayer into a wish list, to ask God for this or that. It is also easy, too easy, to bargain with God. Jacob’s first prayer was not a prayer of trust, it was an offer to bargain: “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.”
Listening is as important as what we say when we pray. Kierkegaard wrote, “the true relation in prayer is not when God hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying continues to pray until he or she is the one who hears, who hears what God wills.” When we listen, we align our wills with God’s will, following Jesus’ lead when he prayed, “not my will, but your will be done.”
I have many prayer books in my library and I find they help me focus, center, and shape what I might be struggling with as I try to stitch together words in prayer. The Reverend Peter Marshall was known not only for the power of his sermons, but also for the simple eloquence of his prayers: “In the name of Jesus Christ, who was never in a hurry, we pray, O God, that you will slow us down, for we know that we live too fast. With all eternity before us, make us take time to live - time to get acquainted with you, time to enjoy your blessings, and time to know each other.”
Here’s another from Marshall: “Father, forgive us all that we talk too much and think too little. Forgive us all that we worry so often and pray so seldom. Most of all, O Lord, forgive us that, so helpless without you, we are yet so unwilling to seek your help. Give us grace to seek you with our whole heart, that seeking you, we may find you, and finding you may love you, and loving you, may keep your commandments and do your will.”
William Barclay is another favorite, with this Sunday prayer: “O God, tomorrow we go back to the world and to all its work and its activities. We remember that Jesus prayed, not that his friends should be taken out of the world, but that they should be kept from the evil of the world. Help us to live in this world as we ought to live. Help us: To do the world’s work faithfully and well; To enjoy the world’s pleasures wisely and temperately; To value the world’s goods without becoming enslaved by them and without despising them; To resist the world’s temptations bravely and resolutely; Help us to live in the world, not as those whose interests never look beyond the horizons of the world, but as those who always remember that in you we live and move and have our being, and that we are pledged to follow in the footsteps of our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
The slower pace of summer is the ideal time to work on your prayer life. Make time each day to lift up your words to God. Make time to listen. Make time for prayer.
Grace & peace,
Pastor
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