In his Letters to Malcolm Lewis expands more on the topic of prayer and discusses, among other things, how to pray. It is a question that pastors get a lot of times: I’m not sure what to say when I pray? I have a hard time concentrating when I pray? What are the kinds of things I should ask for?
Lewis suggests that there are three ways to pray: 1. praying without words, 2. praying using your own words, and 3. praying what he calls ready-made prayers, i.e. the Lord’s Prayer, prayers from the Book of Common Prayer, and other liturgical guides. Lewis believes that prayer without words is the purest form of prayer in that wordless prayers can be offered without the constraints of language. When we put words to things we filter the truth. It’s best to lift our hearts alone to God because it’s the prayer likely to get us to prayer’s ultimate goal – hearing from God more than God hearing from us. Nevertheless it is hard to be “still and know that God is God”.
When was the last time you went before God and didn’t say a word?
However, if one must revert to language Lewis isn’t sure that it makes any difference whether you use your own words or someone else’s. Using his own words was Lewis’ preferred second choice, simply because in the end there is no one else whose prayers would represent more completely his own soul and desire. God does want it to be “us” who prays, and not someone else. However, Lewis points out, the prayers of the Church and of the spiritual giants are important to use and consult because they remind us of “what things I ought to ask”.
I can resonate with this. When I take the time to examine my prayers – I find that they are not only much more about me, but much more about a very small part of me. And while I think God is glad to hear about me, I think he would be much happier to hear much more about me. And he would even more glad for me to hear about him – especially as it might help me to be more the creature he wants me to be.
What do you think?
Lewis suggests that there are three ways to pray: 1. praying without words, 2. praying using your own words, and 3. praying what he calls ready-made prayers, i.e. the Lord’s Prayer, prayers from the Book of Common Prayer, and other liturgical guides. Lewis believes that prayer without words is the purest form of prayer in that wordless prayers can be offered without the constraints of language. When we put words to things we filter the truth. It’s best to lift our hearts alone to God because it’s the prayer likely to get us to prayer’s ultimate goal – hearing from God more than God hearing from us. Nevertheless it is hard to be “still and know that God is God”.
When was the last time you went before God and didn’t say a word?
However, if one must revert to language Lewis isn’t sure that it makes any difference whether you use your own words or someone else’s. Using his own words was Lewis’ preferred second choice, simply because in the end there is no one else whose prayers would represent more completely his own soul and desire. God does want it to be “us” who prays, and not someone else. However, Lewis points out, the prayers of the Church and of the spiritual giants are important to use and consult because they remind us of “what things I ought to ask”.
I can resonate with this. When I take the time to examine my prayers – I find that they are not only much more about me, but much more about a very small part of me. And while I think God is glad to hear about me, I think he would be much happier to hear much more about me. And he would even more glad for me to hear about him – especially as it might help me to be more the creature he wants me to be.
What do you think?
Keep writing your blog even though few respond -- for now. It's a new thing and interest will grow. People are interested in reading even if they don't feel comfortable responding -- yet. It's another way to connect and engage in a dialog of sorts Some introverts (like me) might even be more forthcoming via keyboard than in a face to face group.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in a dysfunctional family, namely, with an alcoholic father, and with a family communication pattern that taught me never to argue with Daddy for fear it would trigger some kind of violence, I have to be honest and say that personal prayer for me has never been an easy or a natural thing to do. My mother taught me to say my bedtime prayers by rote, the "Now I lay me down to sleep" version, which ended with the plea for God to bless all my relatives and friends. The middle 15 or 20 years of my adult life I was an open agnostic. Only when I came to realize that the metaphor of Daddy for God did not mean that God had to be anything like my own father could I come to terms with a personal faith in God at all.
I've been a believer and follower of Christ for the last 22 years.
That's also almost as long as I have participated in 12 Step meetings for Adult Children and Al-Anon Family groups. In those groups, I did learn a lot more about authentic spirituality and personal prayers than I ever learned in church as a child or during the last two decades. Two prayers are routinely said in the group: the Serenity Prayer in every group meeting, and sometimes the Lord's Prayer. Also, the steps themselves include the suggestion to try to improve our "conscious contact with God as we understanding" through prayer and meditation, "praying only for knowledge of His will for our lives and for the courage to carry that out."
I recite these specific formulas because they have come to have actual meaning for me in my own life. In that context, I learned not to pray for God to solve problems like "Please help so-and-so not to drink" because that is simply trying to control God as a tool or a weapon to do for us what cannot be controlled in our lives. That's a big relief, just surrendering my will and not feeling responsible for other people's issues and actions.
As far as prayers in church, given my background, I really can't relate to written prayers at all, or to written creeds for that matter. But I try to keep humble and respectful because I realize that many people find them meaningful.
One of the worst prayers I ever heard in church was on 9/14/2001, in a church group discussing the recent 9/11 attacks. Everyone present was still in shock, and confused, and fearful of another attack. We were asked to express our feelings and thoughts. I ventured to say that Jesus taught us to pray for our enemies, but in the circumstances I was having trouble with that one. A woman in the group immediately bowed her head and prayed, "Dear Lord, please kill all our enemies today." I guess different people have to express their grief and shock in their own way. . . .