Prayers

A while back a little blogging chain letter of sorts was going around and I was included. I have mixed emotions with these contrary to  an e-mail of similar ilk. For e-mails I feel very little guilt at not responding/forwarding. Even when they try to guilt you into forwarding by sicking Jesus on you. You know the sort, "If you love Jesus, you'll forward this to 1200 of your closest friends..." These chain letters simply bog down the internet and so I refuse on principle to be involved with the vast majority. I do forward on one or two every now and again to one or two friends ( I mean its Jesus after all) but I try to clean it up, removing the other forwarded addresses, and I remove the threats (e.g. forward this or you'll grow man boobs and the like- (which would be particularly threatening if I were a woman))
Something similar happens for blogger although these are typically more interesting and don't include the threats. This is where I have mixed emotions because on the one hand its nice to be thought of by other bloggers, sort of a "hey, I'm one of the guys" kinda thing, but on the other hand there is that request to forward it on to others, which is a bit like selling Amway- to me any way, so I don't want to do that. (no offense to anyone out there who sells Amway.)
One of the more interesting ones I have received was sent by MC over at Bedlam and Parnassus (some time ago I'm afraid) asking us to state our three favorite prayers and state why. So, belatedly, here are mine:

The Jesus Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.


I learned this prayer when I was studying the Eastern Orthodox faith. I love it because each word/section can be mediated on separately or as a whole. It is easily committed to memory and thus can be said at any time during the day e.g. waiting in line at the grocery store or waiting in the doctors office.


Glory Be


Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.


Trinitarian and can be sung or spoken. It was part of my growing up in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ. (sung) Its now part of my prayer time/daily devotional/Rosary.


Lord Jesus, come Yourself, and dwell with us, be human as we are, and overcome what overwhelms us. Come into the midst of my evil, come close to my unfaithfulness. Take my sin, which I hate and which I cannot leave. Be my brother, Thou Holy God. Be my brother in the kingdom of evil and suffering and death. Come with me in my death, come with me in my suffering, come with me as I struggle with evil. And make me holy and pure, despite my sin and death, in Jesus' name.


This prayer is by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Lutheran Pastor. Hung by the Nazis in WWII.


This prayer speaks deeply to me of personal sin and our inability to overcome it on our own. It reminds me that we worship a God who does not stand far off, but stands with us and holds us, and bears us up not when we have reached some point of perfection but while we are sinners. Our God comes to us in our evil and cleans us.

Prayer Study 9- Prayer of Rest

Ongoing study of Richard Foster's book "Prayer." Previous studies can be found here.

Rest. Rest. Rest in God’s love. The only work you are required now to do is to give your most intense attention to His still, small voice within. -Madame Jeanne Guyon

• Like being in the eye of the storm while we are surrounded by chaos
• The invitation of Jesus: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matt. 11:29

Sabbath Prayer
• Not primarily a cessation of work
• Means surrendering our desire to get ahead and get more
• Means trusting God to care for us
• “Does not promote inactivity, but it does promote dependent activity”

Prayer in the Middle Voice
• “Resting in God does not mean resignation or idleness. It does not mean that we sit back and hope God will do something. That is a Hindu concept of prayer, in which we sink passively into the impersonal and fated will of gods and goddesses.”
• “In the middle voice we both act and are acted upon. We participate in the formation of the action and reap the benefits of it.”
• Called “holy leisure”—continuing our daily life in the presence of God

Activity of the Trinity
• Work of prayer is not ours alone
• “The spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Rom. 8:26-27
• “The Spirit reshapes, refines, and reinterprets our feeble, ego-driven prayers. We can rest in this work of the Spirit on our behalf.”
• We participate in the trinitarian communion
• God the Spirit interprets our words and sighs
• God the Son pleads our case before God the Father
• God the Father hears our prayers as part of the divine trilogue

Classical Sabbath Prayer
• Solitude
• Simplifies us
• We learn to let go
• Follows Jesus’ pattern of prayer
• Silencio
• A renunciation of our grasping, controlling natures
• Allows God to rearrange our priorities
• Allows us to hear God
• Recollection
• “Focus”
• “Tranquility of mind, heart and spirit”
Cupping the Hands Lightly
• “The hands of God are cupped lightly. We have enough freedom so that we can stretch and grow, but also we have enough protection so that we will not be injured—and so we can be healed.”

Prayer of Adoration-Prayer Study Part 8

Continuing our study of Richard Foster's book on prayer. Previous notes can be found here.

Moving Upward

• All prayer will contain elements of adoration
• “In the prayer of adoration we love God for himself, for his very being, for his radiant joy.” Douglas Steere
• We begin by blessing and enter the silence of awe and adoration

Praise/Thanksgiving

• Thanksgiving—glorify God because of what God has done for us
• Praise—glorify God because of who God is
• An artificial distinction since strains of both elements will be present

God Receives Our Adoration

• “God thirsts to be thirsted after.” St. Augustine
• “Our God is not made of stone. His heart is the most sensitive and tender of all. No act goes unnoticed, no matter how insignificant or small.”

Obstacles
• Inattention—we simply miss God’s presence in the midst of our lives
• Wrong kind of attention—we analyze instead of praise or we are not interruptible
• Greed—in the presence of God’s gracious gifts we ask for more
• Conceit—we focus on our ability to see God in ways that others cannot

What it Takes

• Requires instruction just as children must be taught to say thank you
• Begins in ordinary life by attending to the small blessings of God
• “To experience the tiny theophany is itself to adore.” C. S. Lewis
• Find our “grateful center” (from Sue Monk Kidd)
• Practice gratitude for the blessings we receive each day
• Practice magnifying God; making God larger
• Use the Psalms as a guide to praise
• Use music
• Celebrate the work of God like Miriam at the shore of the Red Sea

Prayer Study Part 7- Covenant Prayer

An ongoing study of Richard Foster's book on Prayer. Previous studies can be found here and here.


What we need is a desire to know the whole will of God, with a fixed resolution to do it.
-John Wesley

Fear of Commitment
• Covenant prayer is a promise of holy obedience
• Self-discipline is the means to true freedom
• “Prayer is not a free-will offering to God; it is an obligatory service, something which he requires.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Duty is “the sacrament of the present moment.” de Caussade
• God, who is merciful, is mindful of our intentions as well as our broken promises

Covenants and the Bible
• God made a covenant with Abraham to bless him, give him descendents & land
• God made a covenant with the Hebrew people through the 10 Commandments
• In new covenant of Jesus Christ, the commandments are to be written on our hearts

Obedience
• The gift of God who first gives us the desire to obey and then empowers us
• Obedience is the result of falling in love with God
• Means being aware of obeying God in the small things
• A matter of practice—most of us don’t get it right the first time
• Obedience in the small things strengthens us to obey in the large things

A Time Commitment
• St. Benedict urged regularity in prayer
• Interruption of work reveals true priorities
• Reminds us for whom we are working
• Meaning of regularity will vary
• “The truth is that we only learn to pray all the time everywhere after we have resolutely set about praying some of the time somewhere.” John Dalrymple
• May choose to be accountable to one another in a small group

Covenant of Place
• Finding a place for prayer gives us focus
• Place may be within a small group—for mutual support

Preparing Our Heart
• Meet God with expectant listening for Kol Yahweh, the voice of God
• Keep silence—”The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” Hab. 2:20
• Read a psalm
• Light a candle; pray with your morning coffee in hand

Prayer Study Part 6- Formation Prayer

An ongoing study of Richard Foster's book on Prayer. Previous studies can be found here.

What is Formation Prayer?
•A process of transformation in which our lives increasingly mirror the Son’s
•Formation prayer begins when our simple prayers are not answered in the way we expect
•We begin a process of change called conversatio morum or death of the status quo

•Prayer is only one element in the process of Christian formation
•Formation prayer is both an active and passive process
•We are both pursuing God and being pursued by God

Model One-- The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola
•Week 1–Contemplate our sins in the light of the love of Christ
•Week 2—Focus on the life of Christ and earnestly seek to conform our lives to his
•Week 3—Contemplate the passion of Christ and seek to die to our own idolatries
•Week 4—Contemplate the resurrection of Christ and seek the power of the Spirit to live our lives in conformity with Christ’s

Model Two—St. Benedict’s Rule
•Composed of 12 steps toward humility
•“Humility means to live as close to the truth as possible”
•Reverence God in daily life
•Confess any sinful thought or action to God
•Do God’s will instead of our own
•Cultivate silence in place of idle speech
•Use plain, simple speech
•Endure “with patience the injuries and afflictions we face”
•“Be content in all things”

Model Three--The Little Way
•Based on the approach of St. Therese of Lisieux
•“To seek out the menial job, to welcome unjust criticisms, to befriend those who annoy us, to help those who are ungrateful”
•A way of life that anyone can engage in everyday

Solitude
•Will be viewed by others as selfish and slothful
•We learn to let go of the opinions of others
•Our true self is unmasked
•“Solitude gives us the power not to win the rat race but to ignore the rat race altogether.”
Other Ways to do Formation Prayer
•Contemplate our own death
•Brings humility
•Best done in light of Gal. 2:19—what does it mean to be crucified with Christ?
•Practice the prayer of docility
•Surrender ourselves to the hands of God, the potter
•A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench. Isaiah 42:3

Prayer Study- Part 5- Prayer of Relinquishment

Previous studies here. A continuation of our study of Richard Foster's book on prayer:




The Spirit teaches me to yield my will entirely to the will of the Father. He opens my ear to wait in great gentleness and teachableness of soul for what the Father has day by day to speak and to teach. He discovers to me how union with God’s will is union with God Himself; how entire surrender to God’s will is the Father’s claim, the Son’s example, and the true blessedness of the soul.
Andrew Murray


• At some point Christians move from a childish, demanding prayer to relinquishment
• Like falling into the arms of Jesus in total trust (e.g. tea commercial)
• End result of this prayer brings us into soul satisfying rest

The School of Gethsemane

• Jesus’ prayer in the garden reflects both his desire that the cup pass and relinquishment that God’s will be done Luke 22:39-46. “Can people be redeemed in any other way?” “No”
• In the way of relinquishment, “My will be done” is subsumed by “not my will”
• My will my way must yield to higher authority

The Process of Relinquishment
• Struggle is an intimate part of relinquishment
• Abraham relinquished Isaac and with him the Promise itself
• Paul relinquished his desire for greater health (more)
• Relinquishment is not resignation. Christin prayer not fatalism
• We are not locked into a preset, determinist future. Dialogue with God.
• Severing the precious roots. Release with hope and trust in the character of God
• Sometimes what we relinquish may be returned to us
• Sometimes what we relinquish needs to die so that God can accomplish his purposes through us. Settled peace (p53)
• Crucifixion of the will.
• I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal. 2:19b-20
• “God creates everything out of nothing—and everything which God is to use he first reduces to nothing.” Kierkegaard
• “Crucifixion always has resurrection tied to it. God is not destroying the will but transforming it so that over a process of time and experience we can freely will what God wills.”
• A.W. Tozar ..freedom from the self-sins: self sufficiency, self-pity, self-absorption, self-abuse, self-indulgence, self-deprecation (more)

Practicing the Prayer of Relinquishment
• Begin with the prayer of kenosis (self-emptying) in Philippians 2:5-11
• Practice the prayer of surrender asking Jesus to interpret “not my will” for your life
• Practice the prayer of abandonment –into God’s hands
• Practice the prayer of release, placing all that you hold dear into the Father’s care as well as your enemies, anger, fears and thoughts of retaliation
• Practice the prayer of resurrection, asking God to restore whatever would advance the kingdom of God

Prayer Study Part 4- Prayer of Tears

Continuing with our study begun a few weeks ago, of Richard Foster's book, "Prayer-Finding the Hearts True Home." The book examines a number of different types of prayer. Previous notes can be found here.


Tears are like blood in the wounds of the soul.
Gregory of Nyssa

Penthos-
• A broken and contrite heart
• Inward godly sorrow
• Holy sorrow
• The prayer of tears
• Keenly felt sorrow over our sin and distance from God

The Experience of Our Forebears

• Early American missionary David Brainard wrote of his tearful repentance in his journal
• O that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people! Jer. 9:1
• I am weary with my moaning every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. Psalm 6:6
• Others pp 38-39

An Experience of Joy

• The “charism of tears”
• In earlier times, those with dry eyes and cold hearts were pitied
• Contrition and repentance is accompanied by deep joy in our relationship to God

What the Prayer of Tears Does

• God wishes to touch all aspects of our lives, including our emotions
• Tears are an indication that God has reached us emotionally
• Because we are sinners and separated from God (original sin), the prayer of tears aids us in acknowledging this
• Martin Luther recommended living a life of daily repentance
• Death and resurrection of Jesus Christ makes this type of repentance possible

Elements of Contrition

• Seek repentance as a gift from God
– Jesus prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
• Confess
• Receive God’s gift of forgiveness
• Obey- Obedience not just avoidance of wrongdoing, but the pursuit of virtue

When We Cannot Weep

• Be both firm and friendly with yourself. Don’t let yourself off with “I’m not the emotional type.”
• “I am a rock I am an island” mentality was not taken on overnight nor will it be overcome overnight
• Shed tears inwardly
“The fire of sin is intense, but it is put out by a small amount of tears, for the tear puts out a furnace of faults, and cleans our wounds of sin.”
John Chrysostom

Prayer Study -Part 3

A few weeks ago we started the study of Richard Foster's book, "Prayer-Finding the Hearts True Home." I am posting the notes I take on to present to my Sunday School class. The book examines a number of different types of prayer.
We have looked at "Simple Prayer","Prayer of the Forsaken " and this week "The Prayer of Examen."

Links to the previous posts here


The Prayer of Examen

Examen- Similar to examination without the academic context. From Latin and refers to the tongue or weight indicator on a balance scale, conveying the idea of an accurate assessment of the true situation.

Lost to most modern church services.

Biblical examples e.g. Psalms “Yahweh, you examine me and know me” (Ps 139:1) King David (1 Chron 28:9) Paul (1 Cor 2:10)

The examen of God is something of immeasurable strength and empowerment.

What is It?

Like two sides of a door it has two aspects.

Examen of Consciousness – How God has been present to us throughout the day and how we have responded

Examen of Conscience- Where we discover the areas that need cleansing, purifying and healing

Examen of Consciousness- The Remembrance of Love

Prayerful reflection on the thoughts, feelings and actions of our days to see how God has been at work among us and how we have responded (e.g. was the boisterous neighbor merely a rude interruption that ruined a quiet evening or was it the voice of God urging us to be attentive to the pain and loneliness of those around us.)

The examen of consciousness is the means God uses to make us more aware of our surroundings.

There is nothing complicated or unusual here, only that God seeks to be where we are and for us to see and hear what is around us and through it all to discern the footprints of the Holy.

It is one way to recall the mighty deeds of God. For us to remember. Scripture is filled with such examples: remember the covenant God made with Abraham, remember how he delivered us from Egypt, remember the Ten Commandments…remember, remember remember. Remember Calvalry.

The examen of consciousness allows us to raise our own Ebenezer (1 Sam 7:12) and declaring, “Here is where God met me and helped me.” We are remembering.

Examen of Conscience- The Scrutiny of Love

We invite God to to search our hearts to the depths. Psalmist, “Search me oh God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts…(Ps 139:23-24)

We ask to see what is truly in us, without apology or defense and God goes with us. The purpose of this journey is for our good and for our healing.


God goes with us:

• If we are the lone examiners we will justify and rationalize to declare our innocence. We will “call evil good and good evil,” (Isa 5:20)
  Since God is with us we are listening more and defending less. He will show us what we need to see and when we need to see it.
  
• Self-flagellation. Left on our own it is easy to think of ourselves as unredeemable. With God along side, we are protected and comforted. God knows that too much introspection can do more harm than good and He will never show us more than we can handle.
  
  Madam Guyon (French mystic 17th century) “If the examen is solely a self-examination, we will always end up with excessive praise or blame. But under the searchlight of the great Physician we can expect only good always.”
  
  It is not without pain but can be likened to a purifying fire and we can welcome its cleansing.
  
  
  The Purpose of the Examen-
  
  It produces within us the priceless gift of self-knowledge. A gift modern man has not found particularly useful, though even the pagans knew its worth: “Know thyself.” – Socrates
  
  “Along this path of prayer, self knowledge and the thought of one’s sins is the bread
  with which all palates must be fed no matter how delicate they may be; they cannot be
  sustained without this bread.” Teresa of Avila
  
  Paul, urges us to offer our bodies, our very selves as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1). This offering cannot be made in some abstract way with pious words or religious acts. No, it must be rooted in the acceptance of the concrete details of who we are and the way we live. We must come to accept and even honor our creatureliness. The offering of ourselves can only be the offering of our lived experience, because this alone is who we are. And who we are not who we want to be is the only offering we have to give. We give God therefore not just our strengths but also our weaknesses, not just our giftedness but also our brokenness. Our duplicity, our lust, our narcissism, our sloth all are laid on the altar of sacrifice..
  
  We must not deny or ignore the depth of our evil, even the truth about our shadow side sets us free (John 8:32)
  
  
  How To Practice the Prayer of Examen
  
  Turn inward, not to become more introspective, or to find within some inner strength or an inner savior. Vain search!
  
  This journey inward does not stop within ourselves, but drives us through ourselves to find God.
  
• Keeping a spiritual journal
  
• Meditating on the Ten Commandments or the Lord’s Prayer

Prayer for the Day

H/T STR from a new book, The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Save me entirely from sin.
I know I am righteous through the righteousness of another,
But I pant and pine for likeness to Thyself;

I am Thy child and should bear Thy image,
Enable me to recognize my death unto sin;
When it tempts me may I be deaf unto its voice.
Deliver me from the invasion as well as the dominion of sin.
Grant me to walk as Christ walked,
To live in the newness of His life,The life of love, the life of faith, the life of holiness.

I abhor my body of death,
Its indolence, envy, meanness, pride.
Forgive, and kill these vices,
Have mercy on my unbelief, on my corrupt and wandering heart.

When Thy blessings come I begin to idolize them,
And set my affection on some beloved object –
Children, friend, wealth, honour;
Clean this spiritual adultery and give me chastity;
Close my heart to all but Thee.

Sin is my greatest curse;
Let Thy victory be apparent to my consciousness,
And displayed in my life.
Help me to be always devoted, confident, obedient,
Resigned, childlike in my trust of Thee,
To love Thee with soul, body, mind, strength,
To love my fellow-man as I love myself,
To be saved from unregenerate temper, hard thoughts,
Slanderous words, meanness, unkind manner,
To master my tongue and keep the door of my lips.

Fill me with grace daily,
That my life be a fountain of sweet water.

Prayer Study

Prayer was to be a focus for me in the New Year. It was to be the focus of my church and the Sunday School class I teach. I even started an new blog back in January that would focus on the subject. The last post on the blog was February 7 right before I started my various hospital/doctor visits.

I have found that when I am tired or sick my formal prayer times dwindle. I still prayed, like when I was placed in a quiet room in the back of the ER at about 1 in the morning and was overcome with a very real sense I was dying. I prayed that I wouldn't die that way, at that time, in that place, knowing full well I had no say in the matter. I realized I wasn't really prepared to die and we all, as Christians, should be prepared to do just that, everyday. For I think it is in being prepared to die (and knowing that you can't kill us) that allows us to live life in ways that otherwise would not be possible. (that whole loving your enemy thing and loving God with all strength, heart and mind) But that is another post.

Something akin to this train of thought was written over at STR some time ago and is worth a read.

We have begun reading Richard Foster's "Prayer" in our Sunday School. I thought I would share some of his thoughts in the notes I've taken for the class:

True prayer is nothing but love. – St Augustine

God aches over our distance and preoccupation and mourns that we do not draw near to Him. He grieves that we have forgotten him. He weeps over our obsession with muchness and manyness. He longs for our presence.

He is inviting us to come home.

Regardless of our situation- the Father’s heart is open wide and you are welcome to come in.

Loving is the syntax of prayer.

The first prayer Foster talks about is called "Simple Prayer."

To pray is to change. But the movement is first inward to protect us from being overwhelmed by God’s glory.

Simple Prayer- the prayer of beginning again

We yearn and hide from prayer.
Our busyness is a smoke screen as we are never to busy to eat or sleep or making love.

There are a number of “somethings” keeping us from praying. First is the notion that things must be just right, that our lives require fine tuning before we can really pray.

We all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives- altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter.

This side of heaven we will never have pure enough motives, or be good enough or know enough to pray rightly. It is in the very act of prayer that these things are addressed in due time.

In Simple prayer we bring ourselves before God, warts and all. In a very real sense Simple Prayer is about us. We are the focus- our wants, needs and concerns.

The most common form of prayer in the Bible. Examples of these are Moses complaining and Elisha retaliating against the children who jeered. But in the midst of these self-centered prayers something more arises.

Simple prayer is beginning prayer. It is daily bread. It is daily needs and we will never outgrow it.

When we pray...the real condition of our heart is revealed. This is when God truly begins to work with us.

Action

To believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary junctures of daily life is the stuff of prayer.

Frustration anger and tears are also the language of Simple Prayer. “Lay before Him what is in us. Not what ought to be in us..” C.S. Lewis

The details of our lives matter to God. Carry on an ongoing conversation with God about the daily stuff of life ala “Fiddler on the Roof.

1. Only one thing is required- Love

2. Never be discouraged by our lack of prayer- “The desire for prayer, is prayer….” Desire leads to practice and practice will increase desire. Give even our lack of prayer to God.

3. Let go of trying too hard to pray lest you get spiritual indigestion. Beware “spiritual greed.” i.e. wanting more of God than can be properly digested.

4. Learn to pray even while we are dwelling on evil. The Lord loves us perhaps most of all-when we fail and try again.

5. In the beginning strive for uneventful prayer experiences

Dangers

Self-centered, narcissistic, selfishness. Rationalization and manipulation of our experiences so that we hear only what we want to hear. Self consumed we may lose sight of God altogether and worshipping “the creature rather than the Creator”.

Did you read #4? "Learn to pray even while dwelling on evil". That is an incredibly powerful realization is it not? That we can pray in that state? But it is very difficult to do and in fact most of us avoid all contact with God in those moments and those that follow, because we do not feel worthy, when in fact, it is precisley at those times when we should be praying all the more.

I am reminded of a sermon by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in which he prays:

Lord Jesus, come yourself, and dwell with us, be
human as we are, and overcome what overwhelms us.
Come into the midst of my evil, come close to my
unfaithfulness. Share my sin, which I hate and which I
cannot leave. Be my brother, Thou Holy God. Be my
brother in the kingdom of evil and suffering and death.
Come with me in my death, come with me in my suffering,
come with me as I struggle with evil. And make me
holy and pure, despite my sin and death. (Advent Sermon Barcelona 1928)

So I'd like to invite you to come along and join my Sunday School class in reading this book on prayer. I'll post notes as we go along much as we did the Advent Study. May our love of God be increased and our prayer life be enriched by the power of the Holy Spirit as we take this journey.

Slow Blogging and Prayer Time

Apologies to the tens of readers of this blog for the slow blogging this last few days. I took some cub scouts to the USS Lexington last week-end and a few to the Texas State Aquarium. I drove down on Saturday morning and then back on Sunday morning to Austin and then drove to Mason and back (another 100+ miles one way) to finish up the week-end. Then I have drill (military training) this week-end. It makes for a very long week. I'm getting too old for this. Still, it was great fun for my youngest son and that makes it worth while but not any less tiring.

I have a list of New Years resolutions and one of them was to learn to pray/pray more consistently and I am pleased that unlike my exercising resolution, I have managed to be somewhat faithful in the prayer department.

One of the tools I am using is based on a book I am reading called "Soul Revolution." In it is an exercise to stay connected to God by taking a moment out of each hour to refocus on God. I set up an Outlook reminder and hit snooze all day so that it goes off every hour.

I would love to report to you that I have had visions and insights that I could share with you. Instead, I will share my pain and embarrassment at the discovery of the depth of my love for my sin. Its really amazing that I sometimes find myself ignoring the reminder. Not always, but sometimes. Now I must wrestle with the Truth that the life that awaits me is better than the one I've made in my own image and that Christ is here in the blackest parts of my life and offers forgiveness and new life. Mind you I've known most of this for a long time. I am a Believer. Just now I've got to sweep some dark corners out. It's going to be quite a journey.

Focus/Study For the New Year

During Advent I read an article in the local newspaper on a book called Soul Revolution and began to prayerfully consider the possibility of using the exercise it recommended as a part of a study for the New Year. I decided to include "Learn to pray" in my list of resolutions for 2009. A number of things occurred including learning that my church will be focusing on prayer this year when I came across this quote over at MereComments:

...While we all have our plans, and perhaps "resolutions," the best of all is to begin each day on our knees, so to speak, seeking the Lord's grace and mercy upon our lives, our loved ones, and our plans, which have to be tentative and revisable. If we are just too busy to pray regularly, we are doing the wrong things. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain....

So that kind of settles it. We'll have a number of postings on prayer in the coming months and some exercises and some links. It is my hope and prayer that these tools will lead us all to a deeper and richer prayer life.