Prayer


"Prayer is acknowledging that we are always in the presence of God." --Desmond Tutu

 "I pray because I can't help myself.  I pray because I'm helpless.  I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping.  It doesn't change God; it changes me."
                                                                                                                          --C.S. Lewis

 We started out sharing some of our own understandings of prayer.  These included:
--Talking to God
--Talking to Jesus
--Asking for health
--Asking for forgiveness (prayers of asking are petitions)
--Asking God to help others (intercession on someone else's behalf)
--Prayer is "a private time to reflect, connect with my faith, experience intimacy with God" (see Matthew 6)
--Prayer is a conversation (a dialogue?)
--Prayer is honest speech to God

The Psalms were identified as a remarkable source of prayerful speech; they can help us to "find our voice."  The Psalms are diverse.  They include Psalms of Praise; Psalms of Lament; Psalms of Thanksgiving; Penitential Psalms (prayers of confession with a desire to change); Psalms of Trust; Psalms of Remembrance (recalling what God has done);  Psalms of Worship; Poems; Songs; even "Imprecatory Psalms," praying for judgment upon or cursing one's enemies (getting the inner-poison out).
We discussed praying when we feel God's absence in our lives; if God is present, we can't tell, and wonder where God is!  We remembered that Jesus prayed from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  We learned that Jesus was actually quoting, or embodying, Psalm 22!
In the gospels, prayer is important to Jesus.  In Mark's gospel, early in his ministry, Jesus is overwhelmed by all the people in Capernaum coming to him for healing and new life (Mark 1:32-34).  He tends to them late into the evening. Once everyone is asleep, Jesus slips away, going off by himself to a "deserted place" to pray.  He re-centers himself in God's will.  When the disciples arrive, telling him that everyone in Capernaum is looking for him, Jesus is clear:  his mission is to proclaim the message of God's saving love to everyone. Thus, they would be moving on to other towns, rather than going back. This sounds like a prayer of discernment.  Jesus would have had to listen for God's voice and not just speak. 
How do we listen for God's voice and seek God's will?  We shared some stories from our own lives.
Richard Foster says: "To pray is to change.  Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a notable characteristic of our lives.  The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ."  Let's take some time meditating on those words.
C.S. Lewis said that he didn't pray in order to get God to change or to get God to conform to what Lewis wanted.  He came to realize that prayer changed him.  His words resonate with Richard Foster, who also writes:  "In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God's thoughts after God and to desire the things that God desires, to love the things that God loves.  Progressively, we are taught to see things from God's point of view."
Foster quotes from Celebration of Discipline. p. 30.

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