"And when you pray..." - Jesus
As much as I love what E.M. Bounds wrote about the need for prayer, I have three faults with his writings on the subject. First, chapters tend to repeat the same ideas. He ends up saying the same thing over and over without actually advancing beyond his main idea for many pages. Second, he fails to define what he means by “prayer.” Does he mean a constant monologue to God? Does he mean a time of solely spending time with God through talking to Him, quietly reflecting on Him or His Word, reading His Word, singing–what? Third, and related to that second fault, I don’t recall having found in his writings any kind of pattern or template of prayer time. Yes, we need to get alone with God; but what do we do when we get there?
Prayer is work. Our busy minds and hearts do not go easily into quieted concentration. We’re also amazingly legalistic and ritualistic creatures. Our first instinct in religion is to do, when it should be not to do. Because of these effects of our sin-tainted natures, what should be to us a delight can turn into a drudgery–a fault entirely our own, and not at all of the One with whom we seek an audience. Is there a solution?
Baptist pastor, financial administrator, and author of over 20 books, O.S. Hawkins, does what Bounds forgets to do. In his very practical, helpful book, “The Pastor’s Primer” (Disclaimer: The link takes you to the extra single copy I have for sale on Amazon.) Hawkins disciples his reader in private prayer by sharing a model from his own life. Here’s a summary of Hawkins’ plain-and-simple primer on making better use of our time before the Lord:
Begin the time with prayers of confession, confessing your sins before God.
Move to thanksgiving, for physical and spiritual blessings, other people, etc.
Then praise Him for His attributes and works
(Maybe singing or thinking through a hymn would be helpful to you in this time.)
Transition to a time of intercession for others.
After that, petition the Lord for your own needs.
Finally, spend time in further communion by opening the Scriptures
(Maybe read several chapters or reflect on just a verse or two.)
I’m being general here. Hawkins would be the first to say that his is not a “method.” It is not intended to be precise (or taxing). It’s just one man’s short outline of how he spends his own time before the Lord, should anyone be interested to know. Nothing more, nothing less. It even fits on a 3×5″ card–I know because I wrote it out on one that I now keep on my desk.
I have been leaning on this older brother’s prayer wisdom for about two weeks and have found my times with the Lord quantitatively longer and qualitatively more meaningful as a result. Hopefully, you will too.
Chris Roberts (63)
Dave Miller (61)
Bob Hadley (48)
Debbie Kaufman (45)
dr. james willingham (44)
Les (30)
cb scott (29)
Rick Patrick (27)
Bill Mac (26)
Christiane (26)
I’ve tried through the years to use various patterns. My problem is that they eventually become burdensome. I’m too much of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda guy.
Me too, Dave. They also become too formulaic for me.
I thought the disciples prayer was the best model. John MacArthur was the one I cut my teeth on. His series started with:
1. The Purpose of Prayer.
2. The Paternity of Prayer.
3. The Priority of Prayer.
4. The Program of Prayer.
5. The Plan of Prayer.
6. The Provision of Prayer.
Lots of information there and the best I have seen.
7. The Pardon of Prayer.
8. The Protection of Prayer.
Something got in the way. Sorry.
sometimes a prayer pours forth effortlessly within us from the Spirit,
and when that happens, we remember that prayer is a ‘gift’ of God, a special grace, and a blessing from Our Father
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSWXEKChD5M&feature=related
Wow… today has been an interesting day. I had someone say earlier that God’s salvific grace is efficacious but His doctrinal grace is not. Faith is a gift according to many. Now you are saying that prayer is a “gift” of God… a special grace and a blessing from Our Father.
This gifting is getting pretty entailed. Here is a question I asked earlier and is pertinent to this statement… if all we are is a “gift” from God… then is it safe to assume that each of us is who we are because of God’s grace… and that those of you who are calvinist are so because God’s grace has turned you in that direction and poor ole me… am who I am because God’s grace has not turned me in that direction?
So in either case, we are all where God has us and we ought to be proud of the person He has made us and revealed Himself to us…
Any thoughts there.
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Was this intended for a different post? This post is about prayer.
Hey Bob,
That was, of course, my statement…Here exactly is what I said: “Irresistible grace speaks to salvific grace, not correct doctrine grace. Al of us have/do resist, if you will, correct doctrine in the sense that we have not arrived at the end of all truth. And we won’t in this life.”
On the doctrine part, I went on to say: “It means that one of us, for whatever reason…whether ignorance, stubbornness, pre-conceived notions, improper exegesis, lack of study, etc., is not embracing what the bible actually teaches.”
All was at your blog if anyone cares to read there.
But your post here does seem to be out of place. Kinda looks like you are seeking an opportunity to interject Calvinism into a post about prayer.
I would appreciate if we not let that happen, Les. Thank you.
I agree Dave. That would be out of place.
One of the Spiritual gifts is evangelism (Eph. 4:7). I think this one gift struggles the most with election or God’s grace blocks that truth for some reason. I really don’t know. If your gift is evangelism, that may be part of the reason.
I was teaching my Sunday School class early in my life about grace because I was overwhelmed with the subject and a young lady told me that I was teaching Calvinism. I assured her that I was not doing that because I didn’t believe that way. She reassured me that I was. I went home and purchased some books on the doctrines of grace and read up on Calvin. Low and behold that is what I was teaching but not all 5 points. Whatever was going on in my spirit was being confirmed as I read about the wonderful works of grace. Only grace can convince a person of that truth. If it is not there, it just isn’t there for some. To stay on subject here, why don’t you pray about it.
From an old Gaelic blessing, this:
“May God give you to drink from the Well of the Trinity”.
Seated by the well where He met the Samaritan woman, ‘wearied by His journey’ Jesus told about the inner well at the source of our being:
“The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up with eternal life” Jn 4.
Searching for that inner spring is one way of going deeply into prayer. St Ignatius of Antioch was aware of ‘the well of the Trinity ‘ and ‘the call within’ when he spoke of
“a murmur
of living water
that whispers within me
‘Come, Come to the Father’”.
Prayer is your personal encounter with the most Wonderful & Mysterious Being that exists. Good luck turning it the interaction into something you can manage.
I’ve always trusted that God hears every thought and every word and essentially I’ve always trusted him to listen in at all times. I can pray publicly in a way that I hope is fervent but not pretentious. I can feel stillness when I pray.
But what I haven’t had over the past 11 years us a sense of God’s presence that I used to feel and direct responses to prayer are far more difficult for me to detect. The front end of that time period was a layoff from a well-paying position that led to lots of unemployment and ensuing financial and other personal stress. The latter half has been a pretty good situation without any career progression and a general feeling that God is looking out for us, but with continuing difficulties.
If I laid all the information out there, most would be tempted to spend a lot of time discussing things I could do differently. But I am not convinced that’s the point (if there is one) of the time. One of the most interesting features of the last three years is being awakened between 3 and 5 am two to three times per week and choosing to treat that time as God doing it and coming up with things that seem to be things to do that he wants me to pay attention to.
Some is tuning in to news that only he could possibly affect. Some is prayer. Some is very casual Bible reading. Mostly it’s just doing it in silence and seeing if a theme emerges. Typically by the end of the time I’m peaceful and relaxed and tired. Sometimes I get frustrated but am committed to treating that time as Him desiring my attention.
Imagine it like your dad just taking the time to hang around with you. With my kids when they were babies I would declare it was floor time and put them on a blanket on the floor with toys and just lay down next to them and “be” with them. It feels like that to me.
And–still in my imagination because I’ve never had any kind of confirmation–I wonder if God enjoys this floor time with me the way I did. No structure. No form. No real intent or purpose. Just dwelling together. I am learning to accept that it might actually be a kind of planned time. And I have to admit that it scares me that He would set something up like that just to make sure we get time together.
Odd, huh??
Greg, thank you for sharing your struggles with prayer. All the “How-to” lists are interesting, but your story of continuing to come “by faith” really encouraged me this morning.
Blessings!
Greg,
Not at all odd. I had that time with him from the 2nd Sunday morning in December 1978 till 2007 or so. I wondered where Dad had gone. Glad to know he was just visiting with another of His kids
Question in relation to “methodologies” employed in prayer; Do any of you folks ever write your prayers to God in a letter? If you do, do you keep them and return to them on occasion for evaluation or reflection, etc.? Do any of you keep a journal dedicated only to prayer?
many journals . . . reflections mostly, C.B., often on the Psalms and on the Holy Gospels especially
L’s,
Do you write out any of your pryers to God in letter form?
some of my ‘reflections’ are contemplative in nature, C.B. but not written out in a formal ‘Dear God’ statement . . .
so I suppose the answer is ‘no’
have you written prayers in letter-form?
I do have to say that the deepest prayer of my heart for the sake of my son with Down Syndrome was answered.
The circumstances were such that I have no doubt of God’s intervention on my son’s behalf. I will be eternally grateful.
‘my cup runneth over,’ C.B.
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