When Jesus taught us to pray, he did not say:
– Oh Wind, or Water…
– Oh Ground of All Being…
– Oh Soil in which we are rooted…
…Hallowed be Thy name.
Consequently, most learned to pray, and made visceral connections to prayer, using person images of God. Most have no connection to non-Our-Father kinds of prayer.
And prayer is falling on hard times. Most Christians I know, if they pray at all, meditate. But we don’t pray for each other.
Meditation resonates. It is a practice in listening for the Inner Divine; quieting ourselves that we may be more tuned to the Inner Voice. It is a practice in awakening our sense of the connection we have to the Divine Presence that is in and around everything; that is the ligament connecting all that is.
But we don’t pray for each other any more.
Twenty years ago when I was first learning to meditate, I had only one image of God in my mind; our Father. However, I knew that centering prayer was doing something profound in me. I was attending a meditation group and had a spiritual director. She was a kind, older woman in her 80’s who had been meditating herself for 25 years.
One day I asked this deeply virtuous woman how she scheduled her life. “Centering twice each day, “I said, “I really don’t have time to do my other praying; my ‘intercession’ praying; my ‘praying-for-others praying.’”
this made me laugh
She responded. “Doug, you might think what I used to think. You might think that God is waiting for you to pray before he intervenes in the lives of the people you love and lead. You might think that unless you pray, God won’t be at work redeeming, restoring, healing, teaching, or unfolding their lives.
But if we think of God as the Ground of All Being, the soil in which we are all rooted, the Divine is not dependent on your prayer to be a sustaining Reality in their lives. Your job, she told me, is to hold yourself before the Indwelling Presence through your meditation practice. Your job is to allow yourself to be transformed, awakened, and alerted to the Divine Reality. Then, simply listen for small promptings of the Spirit within you. Your prayers, she said, will become your actions, your deeds.
And those words from this kind and gentle woman were like a forehead slap for me. I knew that! I had already sensed deeply that God is God, and I am safe. Divine goodness is not waiting on me to be expressed. It always is. It is always available. It is always moving.Why did I think it was held up until I started praying?
That being said…
In the next post, I’ll say that I still pray for others. But it is not because I believe Divine goodness waits on me.
agreed, the image of God created in the minds of folks by religious language and icons has been a hinderance to positive spiritual practice and, I will add, a positive presentation of the gospel of the kingdom of God.
I think the idea of preparing ourselves to effectively engage other people through meditation and prayer or fasting is modeled by Jesus. It is implied throughout the gospels and directly related to spiritual empowerment as Jesus instructs his disciples why they were not able to establish authority over an unclean spirit which was promoting illness/disease in a young man (Mark 9:29, Matthew 17:21) In this instance Jesus instructed his disciple that this sort of unclean spirit was ‘cast out’ through prayer and fasting. Since Jesus did not call a prayer meeting and initiate a fast my suspicion is that his point was that through practice of the perceptable presence of God exampled by prayer and fasting a disciple would experience an increase in spiritual empowerment. I believe an example of what can happen when an abiding relationship with the Divine is not developed and one attempts to exert spiritual authority is found in Acts 19 in the story of the sons of Sceva………the nutshell of it is that through interaction, or simply looking (gazing, worshiping), our Lord we become more like him and are enabled to function as he did/does in the world which is our NOW experience (1 John 3:2 & 4:17).
However, and I imagine this will come up later, corporate prayer is encouraged by the NT (Acts 16:13,4:23,13:1-2) and Jesus plainly states that the inclusion of one or two in focused prayer exponetially increases the effectiveness of the prayer (Matthew 18:19-20)
Paul speaks of prayer in such a way as to indicate he expects results throughout his letters.
James 5:13-20 has a lot to say about the expectations of prayer ministry and our relationships with fellow disciples.
I expect that a lot of hesitancy to engage in prayer for others may be attributed to a lack of expectation of an observable, objectively quantifiable result or, in some cases, a lacking in compassion.
Regardless, this is what one prophet had to say.
1 Samuel 12:23
English Standard Version (ESV)
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.
Food for thought and my two cents-
Be Blessed, David
I’ve been appreciating your posts and comments on prayer…you express my confusion on its place in our lives once we believe that Christ actually inhabits us. I still pray (To), or find that I miss praying when I haven’t for a while, even while I deeply believe that it isn’t ‘needed’ for God to act. I’m coming to think it more relational??? A conversation with my closest friend over what I think should happen or what I think would be most life-giving…
Perhaps also as a way to know my own mind and heart…to do SOMETHING when I know very well that I cannot ‘fix’ my friends/loved ones/world…
Just thoughts. I’ve appreciated the conversation.