Here's a letter from a former student in response to one of the prayers we posted on Sunday as Prayer for the Week, which come from The Book of Common Prayer...Dr. McKnight,
Why is that prayer is often called talking with God- but prayers (at least ones people consider good prayers) are never constructed the way we speak, or even the way we normally write? I think alot of people, myself included, often feel their prayers are weaker or mean less or childish if they don't sound perfect...
Most of the time I feel like I don't know how to pray and I don't like to, because it feels unnatural--trying to pray like the "Prayer for the Week" below. And, I've not been a great Christian- so where does one pick up with prayer- after a long hiatus? It's hard to want to pray when you haven't experienced that feeling that God is alive and working in you...
Sorry- I'm sure you're busy with a hundred and one other things---but I'm just curious!
Be well-
[Name]
Prayer for the Week
Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim you rtruth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Dear [Name],
We have two kinds of instructions on "how" to pray: the Psalms, which reveal a host of things and not the least of which is rugged honesty, and the Lord's Prayer, which focuses our attention on the important things in life.
We learn from these prayers and that is why Christians have used the prayers of others -- to learn from them and not to let them completely replace our spontaneous prayers. Spontaneous prayers don't sound like those prayers, but after awhile we begin to sound more like them. But who cares about how we sound? The issue is telling God what's inside you.
Where to begin? Did you know I wrote a little book on prayer for such folks who struggle with prayer? It's called Praying with the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today
and if you follow the link from
FB to my blog at Beliefnet [or click on the link here], you can click on the little icon on the
right column and find it at Amazon.
You won't believe the number of Christians who have struggled with prayer and who have found the use of prayerbooks to be the kick-start they needed for reviving prayer.
How's that for some suggestions?
Where are you these days?
Blessings,
Scot
We have two kinds of instructions on "how" to pray: the Psalms, which reveal a host of things and not the least of which is rugged honesty, and the Lord's Prayer, which focuses our attention on the important things in life.
We learn from these prayers and that is why Christians have used the prayers of others -- to learn from them and not to let them completely replace our spontaneous prayers. Spontaneous prayers don't sound like those prayers, but after awhile we begin to sound more like them. But who cares about how we sound? The issue is telling God what's inside you.
Where to begin? Did you know I wrote a little book on prayer for such folks who struggle with prayer? It's called Praying with the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today
and if you follow the link from
FB to my blog at Beliefnet [or click on the link here], you can click on the little icon on the
right column and find it at Amazon. You won't believe the number of Christians who have struggled with prayer and who have found the use of prayerbooks to be the kick-start they needed for reviving prayer.
How's that for some suggestions?
Where are you these days?
Blessings,
Scot
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I was very surprised to read on a Calvinist blog the other day that prayer should only consist of talking to God, not listening. It's too much like meditation, goes this view, and seeking the Holy Spirit draws one away from the Bible -- which is all that is needed. There's no scriptural basis for quietly listening to God, according to them.
Me, I think it's good for children like us to occasionally shut up and listen to our Father. God already knows what is in our hearts - we don't need to tell him!
The Jesus prayer can be very effective when I seem inarticulate... simply repeating "Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" can still the mind and open the heart.
Also, lectio divina. But the problem for me is that these are all individual prayers.
I get absolutely tongue-tied when I'm asked to lead a group in prayer. I literally stutter. I have to be warned ahead of time and work up a 3-part outline in my head!!
I've been kicking around the Christain block for over forty years and I still find prayer my most difficult discipline. As some have indicated, it is no secret to God our heart, our petitions, or the needs of others. And I suspect I'm not going to get God to change his mind about too many things, so I keep my prayers rather simple. In fact, if anyone were to follow me around for a day or a week they would say, "He never prays." When in fact I do. Often.
Sometimes my prayers are simple acknowledgements of God's love. Sometimes I'm belligerant and accusatory. Sometimes I'm embarassed and humbled. Sometimes I'm wondering "why?" Other times I'm simply - as others have suggested - silent and listening.
I've read prayers, written prayers, screamed prayers and knelt in prayer. I'm not certain any method really mattered to God as long as we were talking.
1. Eugene Peterson's translation of the Psalms in THE MESSAGE can help give down to earth, "street language" to our prayer vocabulary.
2. Richard Foster's PRAYING: FINDING THE HEART'S TRUE HOME expands our vision of what "prayer" is.
3. Scot's book PRAYING WITH THE CHURCH rescues from the privatization and isolation that permeates USAmerican evangelicals and their spontaneous, "personal" prayers.
4. Written prayers of the church, ie, THE DIVINE HOURS, provide a grounding in an enduring ecclesial theology of prayer.
Dr. McKnight,
I am reading your book 'The Blue Parakeet' and these questions occurred to me....Are there any study Bibles that would encourage or help develop the way of Bible reading you are explaining?....and...or are study Bibles too 'one sided' to be of any use in this endeavour? Is there a Bible version that would be more helpful than another in learning to read in the way you propose in your book? Any thoughts or advice? Thanks for any guidance you may provide!
"Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner". I'm Eastern Catholic (Byzantine) and the Jesus prayer is used in a book called "The Way of the Pilgrim"...excellent. A priest told us that praying is talking to God and that's what do, along with regular prayers. For me talking is great, I speak as if He was right in the room with me. One thing, I do need to "shut up" and listen more.
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