prayer (2nd in a reflection series)

[as my year of internship at the Stockbridge Boiler Room draws to a close (April 1), it seems good and fitting to me to take some time to reflect in this space on what i've gleaned from this season and to testify to the goodness of a Living God who has directed its course. so the next few entries will centered on this.]

i don't know that i really prayed a whole lot before I moved here. i think i listened to other people pray and i said amen. i think that my most eloquent prayer was (and maybe continues to be), "Help!"

if you had told me two years ago that i would spend, on average, approximately 2 hours a day in prayer, i would have found it distasteful and highly unlikely, both. but now it's deeply enough ingrained in me that when i go away on vacation, my day feels like it has two giant holes cut into it: one at 7 am and the other at 8 pm (these are the times we pray as a community at the SBR).

for whatever it's worth, here's some of what i've learned about prayer this year:

1) prayer is probably equivalent to the abiding Jesus called his disciples to (John 15:4). Jesus said to abide with Him and He promised a counselor to abide in us. in one of those divine mysteries that I probably shouldn't even pretend to understand, prayer is this communion betwen the Spirit of God in me and the Father in heaven. it's how i stay stuck in Him and it's the entry point for the Life of Christ to be poured into me.

2) prayer is every bit as much about hearing as talking. sitting down for an hour of prayer seems daunting until you realize that only about 15 minutes of that hour should be spent talking or thinking of things to pray for. the other 45 minutes might just be resting in His presence (because even His silent presence changes things profoundly) or opening up the ears of your spirit to hear His voice. He talks, oh, yes, He is a talker. and i am learning, slowly, how to hear Him. i have loved engaging this practice of listening prayer this year and blogged a bit more about it here.

3) a life of prayer is rhythmic. we are creatures of habit. and whatever we don't have habits for won't usually last long. so even though there have been seasons this year when my hunger for Jesus was so strong that i could hardly stay away from the place of prayer, there have also been dry seasons, and in those seasons, it has been helpful to have a rhythm built-in, to fall back on. it's part of our getting up and our laying down, an unquestioned part of the day. it's the breathing in of the Life of Christ before we exhale into our busy lives. as tony is fond of saying, we ought to organize our lives around prayer, rather than organizing prayer around our lives.

4) prayer is corporate. when i talk about prayer, i often use "we" language. i guess maybe that's because a lot of my prayer life this year has happened with 5-8 other people huddled in a garage each day. but i guess maybe there's something to that. not just for accountability, but also because we aren't really individuals. we're part of a body of Christ, whether we're fully conscious of that or not, and when we sit down to pray with other parts of that body we can remember better. and we can be reminded that God has concerns for them, too, not just ourselves.

5) prayer is on behalf of others - intercession (Job 16:19-21, Ezekiel 22:30). i have been asking the Lord to give me the heart of an intercessor. oh, i still have so far to go in this. but as Beth Moore points out, scripture is full of examples of the prayers of one man leading to the salvation of entire nations. in other words, as Pastor Rod says, we can use our relational favor with God as leverage for moving God's will on behalf of the broken and needy.

6) praying out loud matters. there is a heavenly realm and it is bustling with activity. it's not tame activity, either. it's warfare. so when i stand up and declare aloud to the heavenlies the truth of who God is and His promises over me, there are spiritual beings hearing my words and trembling. the angels tremble with praise, and the demons with fear. i pray out loud a lot. in my room, in the car, as i walk, and in the prayer room. it helps it to feel more real to me, personally. but i have also come to believe that it moves things in the unseen realms.

7) prayer likes a place. i don't mean this in a legalistic way, as though there are only some places sacred enough to pray. prayer should be integrated into all the nooks and crannies of our lives, certainly, but a place is helpful, too. the celts talked about "thin places" -- those geographic locations where the gap between heaven and earth was narrower. and in Punk Monk, Andy Freeman talks about how we can "pray open thin places" in our cities and invite others into them. i love how people come to the prayer garage here and really meet with God, how they report sensing His presence in the room from the moment that they walk in. like He's come to make a tabernacle here. and in our frailty, we often need dedicated spaces to engage with God where piles of laundry and business deadlines can't distract. from this day forward, i want to have a dedicated prayer room (or closet or garage) in my homestead.

8) prayer of a righteous one accomplishes much (James 5:16). oh, prayer is not impotent. and the prayer prayed in faith in accordance with the heart of God by a righteous person does not go unheard. i expect to see things change now. i persist until they do. because God has made it pretty darn clear that He hears us and He moves in response to us. how an unchanging, ineffable God can be changed by the prayers of His people i do not pretend to be able to explain, but there it is. so when i lay my hands on someone and pray for their healing, i expect it to accomplish some healing. when i speak in the authority of Jesus' name and tell demons to flee, i expect them to go.

9) we pray "your kingdom come," we don't program it in. this is something pastor rod said that has really stuck with me. see, there have been so many times this year where the immense and persistent neediness of my neighbors here has stunned me into overwhelmed hopelessness. what can i do for you?! the problems are so deep, the solutions so complicated, the things we are up against run so deep. and then i remember that i can pray. and where i once would have said "i guess all i can do is pray," now i say, "i can pray and that will change things." i'm much less quick to jump in with persuasive arguments, activism, and hand-outs these days... instead, we take it to the prayer garage. and then we wait. then God opens up a door and His kingdom is subtly and unmistakably ushered into that place.

10) prayer is where we begin to know God. and this is all He wants. we were reading the other day about how samuel grew up ministering to the Lord in the temple under Eli the priest, which meant he probably knew a lot about God, and yet He didn't KNOW God until the word of the Lord was revealed to him (3:1,7, 19-21). the word for know there is the same as the word that tells us that adam knew eve - it implies intimacy and to know by experience and revelation. i want to know God. and it seems like in the place of prayer is where i have the best shot of getting glimpses of His heart. which makes sense, because it's only when we give time and attention that we get to know anyone at all.

and this is probably only the beginning. but it shall have to do for now.
i think i could spend my entire life practicing, engaging in, and learning prayer.