Prayer Series 6 - A Place to Pray

 by Dina Sleiman

"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.” ~ Matthew 6:6

For several posts I’ve been sharing my thoughts on tapping into the spiritual realm and truly communicating with God. And while this requires honing our spiritual senses, the physical environment around us can either contribute to or diminish our prayer process. As we see above, Jesus recommended we go into a small, quiet room and pray.

In his book Mystically Wired, Pastor Ken Wilson asserts that many Christians fail in their prayer and devotional lives because they make it too hard on themselves. They make unrealistic demands and set themselves up for failure. God intended for us to enjoy prayer. It is meant to be a relaxing and refreshing time in His marvelous presence. I’ve mentioned some techniques that might help enrich your prayer time including listening to God, imagining meeting with God, and ruminating on specific words from scripture. But today let’s spend some time considering where we pray.

 

We should prepare for prayer the same way we might prepare for a date with our spouse, making it a special time to meet with the lover of our souls. Choose a place that is quiet and comforting. A place that will bring you joy. A place that is special to you. That way when you go to this place, your body will immediately respond with positive associations. As you have wonderful prayer times in this place, those associations will continue to grow. It doesn’t always have to be the same exact place. I have three places in my house where I like to pray. Find what works best for you.

Next, think about your posture. What helps you enter into prayer and focus on God? Kneeling, laying prostrate on the floor, sitting with your hands folded? For me it’s usually sitting cross-legged or with my knees tucked to my chest in an overstuffed chair or on a plush carpet. It could be lying in bed…or showering…or driving in your car. There’s never a “bad” place or way to talk to God and petition him. However, some environments and positions help us to better enter his presence and hear from him in return.

When you first begin to pray, consider taking some slow deep breaths to relax yourself and enjoy the moment. Imagine breathing in the presence of God and breathing out all the stress of your day.

Here are some other tools that might contribute to your prayer experience.

1)      Art work: Anything beautiful that lifts the soul, photos of nature, religious artwork, even a relaxing screensaver

2)      Water: a trickling fountain or sounds of the ocean or rain

3)       Fire: candles, a fireplace, a campfire, or a virtual fire

4)      Scent: incense or a relaxing aroma like lavender or vanilla

5)      Bible: a special Bible with personal significance in a translation you love

6)      Devotional Books: prayers, scripture collections, poems, writings in God’s voice

7)      Journal: for recording what God speaks to you and your own poems and prayers

8)      Music: classical music, instrumental music, especially worship music

I keep this website book marked because it streams beautiful “soaking” worship music all day long. http://www.soaking.net/

 

Give thought to what blesses you during your prayer time and keep those items handy in one place. It won’t be all of the prayer aids I mentioned. Certainly not all at the same time. I once experimented with lighting a scented candle, running a fountain, and playing worship music all at the same time. By the time I was done I had entered sensory overload and was completely distracted. But I have been blessed by all of these items individually during my prayer sessions.

This post would not be complete without mentioning the place I spend most of my personal prayer time—what Ken Wilson calls the “outdoor cathedral.” Like many others, I feel closest to God in nature with no ceiling over my head. I love to listen to the birdsong, the rustle of the breeze. To watch scampering squirrels, waddling ducks, and soaring hawks. Even little ants busy at work. There I can see, feel, hear, taste, and smell God all around me.

So take time to prepare for a special meeting with God. It will be worth the effort.

This post should allow for some good discussion. How do you enjoy praying? Where do you pray? Do you use any aids in prayer? Might any of these suggestions enrich your prayer life? Do you have any suggestions for us today?

Prayer Series 5 - A Time to Pray

 by Dina Sleiman

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

“Today we’re going to talk about prayer.” The youthful pastor glanced over the faces of the congregation lining the pews. One by one smiles turned to frowns of guilt and remorse. Several sets of eyes glazed over with disinterest, while others turned away from him. A sweet, elderly lady in the front row continued to gaze up with a beatific grin.

He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. This should be good. “How many of you have heard a sermon before that instructed you to rise early each morning and pray?”

Every hand in the audience shot up. “How many of you have tried to do this?”

Over half the hands stayed in the air. “And how many have succeeded?”

As he suspected, only five or six remained, including the saintly white-haired woman up front. “Well, I have good news for you. Jesus liked to pray at night.”

A few sighs met his ears, followed by a murmured, “Thank God.”

The pastor chuckled. “Different question. How many of you have been taught that you should set aside an hour a day to pray?”

Again every hand rose. “And how many of you actually pray an hour a day.” All hands fell. Even his friend in the front row lowered her wrinkled one and wobbled it back and forth to indicate hit and miss. Then one brave soul in the back raised his hand high. Several nearby parishioners glared at him and grumbling exploded about the building.

Oh, great. The last thing he needed was to get in trouble with the senior pastor. Again. “Settle down everyone. Today we’re going to talk about a different approach to prayer.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Would it surprise you to know that every school morning for almost nine years I’ve had a devotional time with my children? Often when I mention that to people, I’m met by disbelief, glares, or guilt. But we’ve found a simple formula that works for us. And if ever one child is running late, another will fuss at them because they love our prayer time. They crave that special moment to start the day.

However, we do not wake up early, and we don’t spend an hour. Allow me to share our recipe for prayer success.

1) Keep it short: Our prayer time is five minutes long.
2) Build it into your daily routine: We pray every morning by the front window right before they have to catch the bus.
3) Have a plan: We say the Lord’s Prayer together, then I read a 5-15 verse passage of scripture from a specified book. Finally, one of us closes with a prayer for our day .

Perhaps that sounds too simple. Too easy. But prayer is meant to be enjoyed. Not dreaded. Let’s look at these simple steps in more detail.

Keep it short. When you first attempt to enter into a daily habit of prayer, start simple. Choose a reasonable goal that you feel confident you can conquer. Five minutes a day. Ten at the most. Once this becomes a habit and you begin to enjoy your prayer time, chances are you will find this time too short and want to pray longer. But take it easy on yourself and start out slow.

Build it into your daily routine. What do you do everyday? Have a cup of coffee in the morning and read the newspaper? Check your email when you get home from work? Read before you go to bed? Take a lunch break? Go running? If you’re super busy then what about drive to work? Or take a shower? Choose one of these times and add your five minutes of prayer to it. Once it successfully becomes a habit and you are enjoying it, consider extending it, or adding a second, and later a third time.

Have a plan: It certainly doesn’t have to be the same as my family’s plan. Maybe you’d like open with a worship song, read a devotional, listen quietly, and close with an out loud prayer. Maybe you’d like to read a scripture and meditate on it and then journal about it. Maybe you’d like to begin with a time of thanksgiving, then pray for friends, and finally for yourself. You might enjoy trying something different such as deep breathing, repeating a single scripture, and imagining meeting with God to talk about your day. Traditional folks might like to use a liturgical prayer and light a candle. Our more charismatic friends might want to incorporate praying in the spirit or even dancing. The plan is only to help you, and you get to set it. One day you might want to change it, or scrap it completely. No problem! But a plan will help you see how you can easily fill that time. In fact, before long you’ll find that five minutes is not nearly long enough.

And this is just a starting point to help you enjoy your prayer time. Soon every hand in our audience might go up when the pastor asks who prays an hour a day. The goal is not to sit miserably, whiling away the time. The goal is to enjoy God’s presence so that you seek it more and more. To long to meet with him again. To dream of those moments. To pray without ceasing.

Because you want to!

Do you have a prayer routine that you’d be willing to share with us? What helps you to enjoy your time with God? If you don’t have a regular prayer time, what might help you establish one?

Prayer Series 4 - Divine Reading

 by Dina Sleiman

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you [live in you] richly in all wisdom.” 

~ Colossians 3:16

A few weeks ago in my prayer series post titled “You Have Spiritual Senses” I passed along this premise: we are all spiritually wired, but we are also spiritually challenged. We have spiritual eyes, and ears, and feelings, but we don’t know how to use them. We don’t trust them. They often get crowded out by our physical senses. And this is probably most true in the Western culture. Think about it. Why are there more miracles in third world countries? Is it simply because they need them more? Or might it be that without our Western logic and education, they are more open to mystery and wonder?

I find it helpful to go back before our current culture to traditions used by ancient Hebrews and medieval Christians to learn how to tap into our spiritual wiring. To use our spiritual senses. To discover the divine. 

I had the pleasure of being an editor on a book that focused on one specific technique called lectio divina. According to Wikipedia, “Lectio Divina is Latin for divine reading, spiritual reading, or 'holy reading,' and represents a traditional Catholic practice of prayer and scriptural reading intended to promote communion with God and to increase in the knowledge of God's Word. It is a way of praying with Scripture that calls one to study, ponder, listen and, finally, pray and even sing and rejoice from God's Word, within the soul.”

Excellent resource on Lectio Divina

In lectio divina, you don’t rush through scripture trying to meet your quota of chapters for the day. You relish it. You dwell on it. You read until you find that one word that really sparks something in you. That word that lights up, full of life. Then you pray about that word throughout the day. Meditate on it. Mull it over. Ask God to speak to you his truth about how this simple word or phrase should impact your life. In Hebrew the term is a rhema word.

Really, it’s just another method for finding intimacy with Christ. For awakening those inner senses and hearing from God. Because what good are lifeless words on a page without the Holy Spirit to help us rightly understand and divide the word of God. Without God’s direction and inspiration, we all know, people can read nothing more than their own prejudices and presuppositions into the Bible.

Lectio divina is only one of many techniques for tapping into God’s kingdom that dwells within you. In the coming weeks I hope to cover many more. But maybe, just maybe, this will be the one to spark you and bring your spiritual senses alive in a new way. If you’ve struggled with your quiet time, why not give it a try. Read just a few verses, and allow God to speak his rhema word to your heart.

Let me end with a quick little poem I wrote years ago on this topic.

 I am giddy with the words of God

 that flow like amber wine.

They are honey sweet, delicately spiced,

each one a world to itself,

alive and teeming, sparks flying,

glimmering in multi-faceted rays,

a rainbow of truth to touch each heart

with the idyllic shade of light.

Otherwise, too bright, white hot,

like gazing into the sun.

What scripture or specific word has stood out to you recently? What techniques have you found that enrich your quiet times with God? How do you tap into your spiritual senses?

Prayer Series 3 - Shut Up and Listen!

 by Dina Sleiman

You don't believe because you're not my sheep. My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand. The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the Destroyer and Thief. No one could ever get them away from him. I and the Father are one heart and mind.  ~ John 10:25-30

 I don’t know about you, but I always had the impression that prayer was mostly about talking at God…with words. And this process, for reasons I’ve shared during my last few posts, didn’t work that well for me. So I’ve been blogging about different tools to add to our prayer and devotional times to help us better tune into the spiritual world and truly communicate with God.

 This week I want to talk about the simple process of listening to God with our inner ears. Considering the fact that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, you’d think we’d want to stop and hear what he has to say. I mean, I could spend hours talking to him about my problems. Maybe that would make me feel better. Probably it would just get me more worked up. Besides, he’s already intimately acquainted with me. So wouldn’t it be better to listen and hear what he wants me to know?

Yet don’t most people spend 90% of their prayer time spouting lists at God, or worse yet, trying to order him around and inform him how he should fix the world. I’m sorry, but this strikes me as a terrible plan.

So why don’t people spend more time being quiet and still and listening to God? Maybe because it can be a little scary. Maybe because we’re afraid we’ll fail. Maybe because it requires a loss of control. But listening to God is the most life-changing kind of prayer there is.

Meditating on words and phrases from scripture or imagining God can be helpful in listening prayer. Deep breathing, quoting short scriptures, soaking in quiet worship music, or time spent in nature can also be helpful. I'll go into some of these more in upcoming weeks.

Perhaps the most helpful tool is journaling. By writing down the thoughts, feelings, and impressions that bubble up from that well deep inside of us, we allow them to flow free. Choose not to analyze, but just to capture it all on paper. Then later you can compare what God has spoken to you with the word of God or share it with a spiritual advisor. What will God’s voice sound like? Fair enough question.

A great book on this subject

God rarely speaks in an audible voice. You have to quiet your own thoughts to hear his still quiet voice deep in your heart. And it does tend to feel as if it come from somewhere in your chest. God’s words will often take you by surprise and sound like nothing you could have come up with on your own. There is a sense of “flow.” They will bring peace and comfort. They will sound of authority. Even if they convict, they will do so with love and compassion. They will strengthen you and give you hope. They should always align with scripture and will sometimes even take the form of scripture.

Our own thoughts usually come from somewhere in the vicinity of our head. They tend to be logical and predictable. Sometimes critical and judgmental. Sometimes lenient on sin. Most of us are pretty familiar with our own thoughts. They often run in circles and get us nowhere.

Satan’s voice can be the trickiest, but you’ll quickly learn to tell the difference. This voice brings negative emotions: fear, anger, hopelessness, condemnation, bitterness etc… It might sound good on the surface, but you can tell it by the fruit it produces. It accuses and twists the truth. Satan loves to use words like “always” and “never” and work you into a frenzy, the opposite of the peace of God. His words twist in your gut and can feel like they come from that area. Rebuke the devil in the name of Jesus when these thoughts attempt to invade.

Don’t focus on Satan, though. Focus on God. He is the good shepherd and his children know his voice. Spend time with him. Learn to listen to him. Use the tools that best help you to relate to him and hear him speak.

So the next time you pray, remember, stop talking so much and listen already.

What helps you listen to God? How do you identify his voice? Have you ever tried keeping a prayer journal?