References:
• Matthew 6:9-13 NAS
• Prayer Online
• The UMC Book of Worship
• PC USA Book of Common Worship
This blog entry is based on a Bible Study that I did with members of the church my wife and I attend. It is definitely not an exhaustive look at what prayer is. Whole books written by people who have spent much more time studying the Christian concept of prayer. Instead, this is simply an introduction to my understanding of prayer. If there is enough interest, I will be happy to go into deeper detail with different aspects of prayer.
Let me first emphasize something. It is my opinion (and experience) that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to pray. Just as learning new skills, learning a language, cooking, etc., everyone has their own style and preferences. Some styles of prayer are more appropriate for different situations. However, praying is as unique as the person saying the prayer and the situation that created the need/desire for prayer.
Growing up a Presbyterian minister’s son, I learned a lot of prayers over the years. Some of them were typical prayers said before meals, others were prayers typically said before bed. Two examples are “Now I lay me down to sleep….” and ‘God is great, God is good…” I also grew up seeing the Psalms are awesome examples of prayers. I don’t think I ever saw them as exhaustive examples, just some examples.
While growing up in the church, I also learned to pray for others. Whether for healing, strength, encouragement, safe travels, etc. Although I learned all of these different prayers, I did not develop a deep prayer life until many years later.
While in college and seminary, I was introduced to many styles of prayers. I was also given ‘formulas’ for ‘how to pray.’ While I believe that acronyms can be helpful for doing prayers, I don’t think that they are absolutely essential. One ‘formula’ (acronym) that I came across recently that can be helpful is ACTS. ‘A’ is for adoration, praising God for who He is. ‘C’ is for Confession, telling Him everything we’ve done wrong and asking for His forgiveness. ‘T’ is for thanksgiving, thanking Him for answered prayers and for helping us in our daily lives. And ‘S’ is for supplication, asking God for daily needs (http://www.prayeronline.org.au/how-to-pray).
But, for me, one of the most important things that I have learned is that prayer is to be a conversation with God. One way of looking at it is, we read Scripture to hear from God. And then we pray in order to talk with God. While I do pray this way at times, I more often do not. Instead, I will spend a large portion of time while walking, driving, or sitting in the house and reflect on things in my life while praying. Sometimes I might have a list of things that I want to make sure and pray about, but often I don’t.
On many occasions, I have gone for a walk and prayed for others. Things that I typically will pray about are my friends and family, the businesses and/or houses that I walk buy, up coming events in my life, etc. There rarely is a set agenda, I just pray about what comes to mind. I was first exposed to this idea of ‘prayer walking’ while in college. It is a good way for working on praying in a more spontaneous manner.
I do something a little different while driving to work. Over the years, I have developed the habit of spending at least 10 minutes of my commute to work (be it for the Department of Corrections, the Nebraska Guard unit, or something else). Typically, I will acknowledge my sinful nature, thank God for His healing and forgiveness, and transition to thanking Him for giving me His Spiritual Armor (Ephesians 6:10-18). Then I will often start praying about my upcoming day at work, things that I know I will experience, making the right decisions, that myself and all others in a leadership role will make the right choices, etc. Some days, I only spend 5-8 minutes in prayer. Other times, I have spent an entire commute in prayer. Either because of all the things that came to my mind to pray for, or because I was spending a lot of time praising and thanking God for things He has already done.
Some people like to keep a prayer journal. I have done this on occasion, but have not been very consistent with it. Probably because I typically prefer to pray while doing other things like walking or driving.
While I was at FT Bragg, and friend of mine and I decided to become prayer partners. We would call each other on a regular basis (frequently to daily, depending on our schedules). During our phone calls, we would share recent news, prayer requests, and then pray together. Since we would usually pray with each other while talking on the phone, we jokingly would say, “Do you want to dial and then I hang up?” That is, one of us would ‘dial,’ or start the prayer. Then, we would pray as we felt the Holy Spirit guiding us. Eventually, when the other person felt led to do so, he would ‘hang up.’ That is, he would close the prayer. It was something that worked really well for us.
Asides from the many examples of prayer in Scripture, two other good resources come to my mind. One is Chapter 3 of “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard J. Foster. The other is chapter 15 of “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In both of these examples, the respective author spends times talking about their perspectives and experiences on prayer. There are many, many other resources out there that one can use.
In closing, I want to emphasize a couple of things. One is that how a person prays is really going to depend on who the person is and the particular situation that they are praying about. A person should always be learning and growing with how they pray. Try different ways of praying. Try keeping a prayer journal, pray by yourself and pray with others, experiment with praying for people while out walking, etc. Over time, God will help you learn ways to pray that honor Him and draw you closer into a deeper relationship with Him. In fact, that should be one of your goals with prayer, to experience His love and grace more, to walk closer with Him, and to be able to be more responsive to His guidance. Be ready to be surprised by Him as you do this. He has truly done that with me.
Showing posts with label Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spirit. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Touching Lives
Scripture verses to ponder:
Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 NKJV
John 3:3-13 NKJV
1 Corinthians 3:1-11 NKJV
Hebrews 13:1-7 NKJV
Every so often during the last couple of weeks, I have been looking at the stats for my blog site, “Law and Grace.” As of the time of writing this blog entry, I have had over 620 visits since I first started it in 2012. Now, how many of those were people who clicked on a link to my blog, saw what it was about and left without reading much, I don't know. But, I am excited by the fact that my blog has been visited so many times. Especially considering the fact that this entry will be my 27th published entry.
Something that excites me more than the number of people that have visited my blog is the fact that so many people from different countries that have visited it. According to the stats page, the majority of the people who have visited my blog are from the US, with over 400. Considering the fact that I am from the US and that most of my friends and relatives live there, that is no surprise. What is a surprise is that people from countries like Germany, Netherlands, Russia, the Ukraine, Romania, amongst other, have visited my site. Again, I don't know how many stayed to read and how many clicked on my site and then left. That is only known by God. But, it shows that I am starting to touch lives all over the world. That is totally awe inspiring!
And, that really got me thinking… As the passages that I listed above, we often do not know, or even have a clue, as to what God chooses to do through us. Each and every person that we interact with through out lives, be it just once, or through an on going relationship, we impact them either positively or negatively. Kind of like leaving footprints in their lives. A very popular poem about this concept, called “Footprints in the Sand,” can be found here. A song written about this poem can be found here. Gives one a different view of how Christ walks with us, huh? But, let's take that idea a little further.
Lets say that each of our lives is like a beach. For those of us whose lives are longer (I am over 40 years old and experienced a lot), our 'track of beach' will probably be long and wide. Others would be much longer and wider than mine. Others much, much narrower and shorter. And, picture various footprints appearing and disappearing, going this way and that. These would be the footprints of others that have impacted you, either positively or negatively. When you add onto this how many lives impact you through your on-line relationships, it can really become filled and confusing. I am sure that my stretch of beach would be a huge swath of churned sand, kicked all over the place. Especially considering the gruff personalities I have interacted with in the military and in corrections. Some of them have been quite negative, even cruel. But, others would be neatly made because the person making them were friendly and caring with how they interacted with me, even if it was just briefly.
Whether short or over a long period of time, whether gruff, mean, or kind, each of the footprints left a mark on my life. Each of them shaped me into the person that I am today. Looking back, even some of the more gruff and 'difficult' people that I had to deal with were able to positively change me. It was not pleasant for me at the time, but over the months and years, I was able to see how they were (intentionally or not) directing me and how God used that to change me. Kind of like how Joseph viewed his brothers. Years before, they had sold him into slavery in . But, God never abandoned Joseph and continued to mature and train him so that, after many years, Joseph would be ready to become second in command of all Egypt and save the nation, and many surrounding countries from a very, very severe drought and famine. Though Joseph's brothers had evil intent, God used all of the circumstances to bring about great and awesome good for all.
If God could use Joseph in such an awesome way, then I knew that He can use me in awesome ways to touch the lives of others. Whether it is the people that I interact with on a day-to-day basis, face-to-face, friends that I talk with via the Internet, or 'faceless' people that are able to read my blog from around the world. I have faith that God will touch the lives of those around me. In fact, a particular Scripture passage comes to my mind:
I believe that God can and will use me to impact the lives of those around me. When I walk in obedience to Him, He will use that to bless the lives of others. Though it may not always be in the way that I intend or the way that they perceive, God will accomplish what He wills in due time. Even when I make a fool of myself and do not walk according to the Spirit, but according to my flesh, I trust that He can use that, too. Even if its along the lines of, “Look… Don't do that, or else this will happen.” For me, that is the awesome thing about God. Even when I seek to do His will and fail because of my brokenness and human frailty (or even human foolishness), God can still use it for His greater good. I do have an obligation to Him to strive to walk in the Spirit and to be obedient to Him. Out of thankfulness for all that He has done that I don't deserve (Romans 5:1-10), I want to be obedient. But, even when I want to serve Him wholeheartedly, even when I fail He will still use it. That gives me a lot of peace, knowing that as I make myself available to Him, He will use me in awesome ways!
Hebrews 12:1-6 is such an encouragement to me. Many have gone before me, some suffering great evil so that the Gospel of Christ could be proclaimed. And now, each of those witnesses are cheering us on to continue to do good and live lives of obedience. It may not always be easy, sometimes it may be down right painful. Some may even have to lay down their lives in order for the Gospel of Christ to be clearly and loudly proclaimed. Those are more extreme examples. In our own lives, we can daily live self-sacrificially, in obedience to God, and proclaim the Gospel of Christ in our words and actions. Though we may see evidence of God touching the lives of others, that may not always be the case.
As I started, I will end reflecting on how many people have at least looked at different pages of my blog. Though different stats give different totals, one thing doesn't change. Many people from all over the world have been exposed to what I have been writing. I have not heard much in the way of how I have impacted them. Many don't know me from Adam, Cain, or Noah. Some of whom will probably not realize how my words have impacted for some time, when God brings to mind something that I wrote that, all of a sudden, now makes sense or illuminates something. A song by a Christian singer, Ray Boltz, comes to mind. The song is called, “Thank You.” You can find the lyrics here and a video here. The person who is a subject of the song sought to obediently live for Christ and the song is a celebration that, upon entering Heaven, Christ started showing him just how many lives were touched through his words and actions. Let all be encouraged to live more obediently to God and to make ourselves available to Him. Only He knows how much He can use each of us to change the lives of those around us.
Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 NKJV
John 3:3-13 NKJV
1 Corinthians 3:1-11 NKJV
Hebrews 13:1-7 NKJV
Every so often during the last couple of weeks, I have been looking at the stats for my blog site, “Law and Grace.” As of the time of writing this blog entry, I have had over 620 visits since I first started it in 2012. Now, how many of those were people who clicked on a link to my blog, saw what it was about and left without reading much, I don't know. But, I am excited by the fact that my blog has been visited so many times. Especially considering the fact that this entry will be my 27th published entry.
Something that excites me more than the number of people that have visited my blog is the fact that so many people from different countries that have visited it. According to the stats page, the majority of the people who have visited my blog are from the US, with over 400. Considering the fact that I am from the US and that most of my friends and relatives live there, that is no surprise. What is a surprise is that people from countries like Germany, Netherlands, Russia, the Ukraine, Romania, amongst other, have visited my site. Again, I don't know how many stayed to read and how many clicked on my site and then left. That is only known by God. But, it shows that I am starting to touch lives all over the world. That is totally awe inspiring!
And, that really got me thinking… As the passages that I listed above, we often do not know, or even have a clue, as to what God chooses to do through us. Each and every person that we interact with through out lives, be it just once, or through an on going relationship, we impact them either positively or negatively. Kind of like leaving footprints in their lives. A very popular poem about this concept, called “Footprints in the Sand,” can be found here. A song written about this poem can be found here. Gives one a different view of how Christ walks with us, huh? But, let's take that idea a little further.
Lets say that each of our lives is like a beach. For those of us whose lives are longer (I am over 40 years old and experienced a lot), our 'track of beach' will probably be long and wide. Others would be much longer and wider than mine. Others much, much narrower and shorter. And, picture various footprints appearing and disappearing, going this way and that. These would be the footprints of others that have impacted you, either positively or negatively. When you add onto this how many lives impact you through your on-line relationships, it can really become filled and confusing. I am sure that my stretch of beach would be a huge swath of churned sand, kicked all over the place. Especially considering the gruff personalities I have interacted with in the military and in corrections. Some of them have been quite negative, even cruel. But, others would be neatly made because the person making them were friendly and caring with how they interacted with me, even if it was just briefly.
Whether short or over a long period of time, whether gruff, mean, or kind, each of the footprints left a mark on my life. Each of them shaped me into the person that I am today. Looking back, even some of the more gruff and 'difficult' people that I had to deal with were able to positively change me. It was not pleasant for me at the time, but over the months and years, I was able to see how they were (intentionally or not) directing me and how God used that to change me. Kind of like how Joseph viewed his brothers. Years before, they had sold him into slavery in . But, God never abandoned Joseph and continued to mature and train him so that, after many years, Joseph would be ready to become second in command of all Egypt and save the nation, and many surrounding countries from a very, very severe drought and famine. Though Joseph's brothers had evil intent, God used all of the circumstances to bring about great and awesome good for all.
If God could use Joseph in such an awesome way, then I knew that He can use me in awesome ways to touch the lives of others. Whether it is the people that I interact with on a day-to-day basis, face-to-face, friends that I talk with via the Internet, or 'faceless' people that are able to read my blog from around the world. I have faith that God will touch the lives of those around me. In fact, a particular Scripture passage comes to my mind:
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. 12 "For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; And it shall be to the Lord for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." (Isaiah 55:6-13 NKJV)
I believe that God can and will use me to impact the lives of those around me. When I walk in obedience to Him, He will use that to bless the lives of others. Though it may not always be in the way that I intend or the way that they perceive, God will accomplish what He wills in due time. Even when I make a fool of myself and do not walk according to the Spirit, but according to my flesh, I trust that He can use that, too. Even if its along the lines of, “Look… Don't do that, or else this will happen.” For me, that is the awesome thing about God. Even when I seek to do His will and fail because of my brokenness and human frailty (or even human foolishness), God can still use it for His greater good. I do have an obligation to Him to strive to walk in the Spirit and to be obedient to Him. Out of thankfulness for all that He has done that I don't deserve (Romans 5:1-10), I want to be obedient. But, even when I want to serve Him wholeheartedly, even when I fail He will still use it. That gives me a lot of peace, knowing that as I make myself available to Him, He will use me in awesome ways!
Hebrews 12:1-6 is such an encouragement to me. Many have gone before me, some suffering great evil so that the Gospel of Christ could be proclaimed. And now, each of those witnesses are cheering us on to continue to do good and live lives of obedience. It may not always be easy, sometimes it may be down right painful. Some may even have to lay down their lives in order for the Gospel of Christ to be clearly and loudly proclaimed. Those are more extreme examples. In our own lives, we can daily live self-sacrificially, in obedience to God, and proclaim the Gospel of Christ in our words and actions. Though we may see evidence of God touching the lives of others, that may not always be the case.
As I started, I will end reflecting on how many people have at least looked at different pages of my blog. Though different stats give different totals, one thing doesn't change. Many people from all over the world have been exposed to what I have been writing. I have not heard much in the way of how I have impacted them. Many don't know me from Adam, Cain, or Noah. Some of whom will probably not realize how my words have impacted for some time, when God brings to mind something that I wrote that, all of a sudden, now makes sense or illuminates something. A song by a Christian singer, Ray Boltz, comes to mind. The song is called, “Thank You.” You can find the lyrics here and a video here. The person who is a subject of the song sought to obediently live for Christ and the song is a celebration that, upon entering Heaven, Christ started showing him just how many lives were touched through his words and actions. Let all be encouraged to live more obediently to God and to make ourselves available to Him. Only He knows how much He can use each of us to change the lives of those around us.
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