Lord's Prayer

Resolved: I'll pray - 5 ways to pray 5 minutes a day

Richard Dahlstrom — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:56:16 -0800

Life, it seems, is coming at us faster than ever. Longer hours at work, more stress, commutes, repairs, exercise, relationships, and endless social connections that encourage us to remain linked in, with updated status reports and timeless tweets - add it all up and life can feel like a video game. It's coming at you and you're reacting. Reacting, though, is much different than living. When I'm reacting, I end up preaching because I'm expected to say something, rather than because I've something to say. I feel scattered, ineffective, stressed.I've felt this way too much in 2010, and so I'm heading back to "first things", foundational truths that are considered foundational precisely because life can be built on them. I Samuel 30 tells the story of a time in David's life when he felt overwhelmed. After some enemies ransacked a village, stealing his wives and children, he was overwhelmed with grief. On top of that, his few faithful friends were so angry over the kidnapping that they blamed David for it and there was talk of stoning him to death. It was a bad week. We all have them, though not often to that degree.The first thing David did, we learn, was he "strengthened himself in the Lord". This is the best first thing any of us could do, before diet, exercise, yoga classes, new goals and objectives, or attending another seminar. Billions are made each year by capitalizing on our fundamental discontent - our sense of dis-ease that sends us looking in a thousand directions for ways to make life better. I'd like to humbly suggest that whatever you're resolving to do differently in 2011, if you don't have any habits that help you strengthen yourself in the Lord, start there. Specifically:I resolve to pray 5 minutes a day - at least 5 days a week.If that sounds overwhelming, here are five options for structuring your five minutes of prayer:

1. write your prayers in a journal. This helps you keep track of your prayers and see progress (or areas where you might be stuck).

2. meditative prayer means that you memorize a prayer, like the Lord's prayer, or the 23rd Psalm, or the prayer of St. Francis. Then, having memorized it, you say it slowly, offering a phrase (aloud or silently) with each exhaling breath.

3. contemplative prayer - which means, practically, sitting silently and envisioning the reality that you are wrapped in the arms of a loving God. You don't need to say anything, and when your mind wanders (it will) you simply return to pondering God's loving presence. Another way of doing this is to repeat a word that God might give you. I'll sometimes pray this way: "I receive your wisdom Lord - thank you" or instead of wisdom, maybe 'peace', 'patience', 'courage' or whatever is needed for the day.

4. Identity prayers - read through specific bible verses that declare your identity in Christ, thanking God in prayer for each truth as you read them.

5. talk to God - if you're not a journal keeper, then just talk with God. If you need some structure to the conversation, try categories: a) Give thanks for a blessing you've experience (whether a sunrise, or good conversation, or....) b) confess where you've failed or are struggling, and thank God for his forgiveness c) request from God things that are own your heart, as you express your need for provision, direction, healing d) pray for others, asking God to respond to situations in your sphere of concern.

I don't want to guilt anyone into this. I do want everyone who reads this to know that I've never met anyone who has grown into a sense of genuine intimacy with God who would easily walk away from their time with God in prayer. What's more, habits of prayer have marked those whose lives have overflowed with blessing of Christ, for countless generations. You don't "skip prayer" and know intimacy with God. Prayer has been foundational for millions, for generations. So simple. So transformative. So rare.We're in a state of information overload and as a result, it's easy for us to end up worrying about many things in the world: money, sexuality, terrorism, which party is in power, how to lose weight, what will happen to the economy (and our jobs), singleness, marriage, children, aging parents. As we flit from worry to worry, the life gets sucked out of us, and we find ourselves weary, confused, overwhelmed - at least some of us do.If we pray first, though, our answers are built on the foundation of intimacy with our creator. Can you think of a better foundation?

Neither can I. That's why I'm calling our church to develop habits of prayer in 2011, and I hope you'll join us.I hope we can help each other, in 2011, become people who pray.Please share your own thoughts on:

1. why regular prayer times can be hard to acheive

2. what benefits you've found from regular prayer timesThanks! I'll be writing more about this after I return from Africa.

Wrestling with Contemplative Prayer

Holly Ordway — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:16:16 -0700

Contemplative prayer sounds restful. Instead of spending all my prayer time talking to God, why not just listen once in a while – resting in the presence of God and waiting on Him? My pastor explained that contemplative prayer involved settling down in silence, just focusing on God, and repeating a phrase like "Lord, have mercy" or the name of Jesus to keep one's attention on Him. I recognized that it was exactly the sort of thing I needed to do, and hey! it sounded easy.

It’s not.

Over the past year, as I’ve experimented with contemplative prayer, I’ve discovered that it is, in fact, really hard.

Contemplative prayer feels like gripping tightly onto a rope when there are little hands tugging at my clothes to pull me away. It feels like trying to keep my focus centered on winning a point in fencing when there are shouting athletes, screaming coaches, and the beeps and buzzes of scoring boxes all around me, and my own adrenaline is kicking in and I am trying not to think of how important it is to score this point because it will put me into the next round of the tournament.

The challenge of contemplative prayer starts with the physical distractions. As soon as I sit down and try to pray contemplatively, I become intensely aware of my physical body - I can feel my pulse in my hands resting on my desk, I can hear my own heart beating. I want to fidget, get myself more comfortable, pull up my chair, push my chair away... do anything but sit still.

As I settle into prayer, my mind starts turning up distractions. Generally I start with my mind full of thoughts all bouncing around; then, in the first couple of minutes, I gradually push them aside and get to a place where I feel I can focus on God.

Then it gets really tough.

That first space of quiet thought is a temptation to pride and a sense of being in control. "I can clear my head of distracting thoughts any time I want! In fact, since I've had a whole one minute without too many worries, I'm going to call this a successful prayer session and move on to the twenty-seven other things on my to-do list." Well... no. Stick around and see what happens.

The distractions weren't gone. They were just muted for a moment. Now they're back, and the volume turns up.

Some distracting thoughts are so banal that they slip under the radar, and I'm hardly aware that I'm thinking about them. Anticipating the cup of coffee I am going to have this afternoon. Mmm, Starbucks. Wondering if have any cans of root beer left in the fridge or do I need to buy more? Before I know it, I've spent a chunk of my prayer time thinking about what I'm going to have for lunch. Then, if I get upset with myself for that, I am still thinking about the distraction; instead I have to let it go, shoo it away. Again and again.

The hardest distractions to resist are the "good thoughts." I start planning a project at work, or thinking about a friend who needs prayer. Important as those thoughts are, I have to let them go so that I can wait on God.

I struggle, too, with the deliberate uselessness of it all. I want to be doing something – not just sitting here.

And then I see how contemplative prayer challenges me at the heart of my faith. Do I really believe that God hears me, knows me, loves me? Yes, I do believe that. Then why don’t I want to spend even a few minutes just sitting in His presence, loving Him and being loved by Him? Letting Him shape me and fill me with His Spirit? It’s probably pride and self-will: the thought that really, I know best what I need to be doing, so I don’t need to check in with God.

Indeed God has given me gifts to use in His service, but to pray in a contemplative way is to "down tools" for a while. I need to spend time with our Lord that is just time with Him – on His terms, not mine.

...Be Your Name

Christy Tennant — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:34:30 -0700

Last week it suddenly occurred to me that I felt totally estranged from God. Nothing particular had "happened" to make me feel this way - I just couldn't remember the last time we had spoken. It was a horrible feeling. I had talked about God, read the Bible and prayed with my women's group. But I had been busy, racing through my morning devotions. I had not just sat and talked to Jesus (or listened in case he had anything to say to me).

Once I realized the problem, I knew I needed to sit down and reconnect. But it was hard to break the ice. I knew I needed to talk with God. But I didn't quite know where to start. (Funny how quickly that can happen.)

I sat in my favorite chair for a few moments, struggling, feeling awkward. But I kept catching myself thinking about God rather than praying to him. Do what my disciples did. "Lord, help me to pray. Help me in my weakness..." I opened my Bible to Matthew 6 and began to read, contemplating what I was reading:

My Father... hallowed be your name...

That's as far as I got.

Name. Name. Hallowed be your name...

I began to think about Jesus' name. And what Jesus is called. I started brainstorming, and soon had three little pages of notepaper filled with different names.

Savior

Redeemer

Lord

Master

Friend of Sinners

Healer

Judge

Vindicator

Binder up of broken hearts

Rescuer

Provider

Bridegroom

Seeker of the lost

Prophet

Great High Priest

Lamb of God

With each name I wrote, my heart lifted a bit.

Good Shepherd

Lion of the Tribe of Judah

Hope of the Nations

Desire of my heart

Servant of all

Anointed One

Messiah

Deliverer

Son of God

Protector

Image of God

Love

Reconciler

Atoning Sacrifice

Teacher

King of Kings

Bread of Life

The more I wrote, the more the names flowed. Like a stream pouring into my dry heart, the water refreshed my spirit.

Living Water

Fountain of Life

Sun of Righteousness

Alpha

Omega

Beginning

End

The First

The Last

The One Who Was

The One Who Is

The One Who Will Always Be

The Great I AM

Jesus

Jesus

The whole thing lasted just a few moments, but soon the chasm was bridged once again, and we were chatting like old friends. Its amazing to me how quickly the word of God can tear down barriers and open the floodgates of heaven. I thought of more names as the day went on, encouraged again each time a new name occurred to me.

My all in all

All my fountains are in you...

What names would you add to the list?