Thoughts Along The Journey

“Jesus does not say, “Come to me, all you who have learned how to concentrate in prayer, whose minds no longer wander, and I will give you rest.”  No, Jesus opens his arms to his needy children and says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28, NASB).  The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness.  Come overwhelmed with life.  Come with your wandering mind.  Come messy.”

I can relate, as maybe you can, to the struggle that Paul Miller describes here in chapter 3 of what he calls a “wandering mind”.  But as I re-read this chapter, an even earlier statement hit me harder:

“When we slow down to pray, we are immediately confronted with how unspiritual we are, with how difficult it is to concentrate on God.  We don’t know how bad we are until we try to be good.  Nothing exposes our selfishness and spiritual powerlessness like prayer.”

Wait a minute, I thought, how can he talk about selfishness and powerlessness when I am for the most part consistent in my prayer time?  As soon as those thoughts came to mind, I realized I was trying to gain some advantage with God, rather than admitting my neediness to “come messy” to Him. Miller drives the point home even further when he says:  

“Ironically, many attempts to teach people to pray encourage the creation of a split personality.  You’re taught to “do it right.” Instead of a real, messy you meeting God, you try to re-create yourself by becoming spiritual.  No wonder prayer is so unsatisfying.  So instead of being paralyzed by who you are, begin with who you are.  That’s how the gospel works.  God begins with you.  It’s a little scary because you are messed up.”

Now I re-read this part several times as I thought maybe the author (or publisher) missed a word somewhere: “So instead of being paralyzed by who you are, begin with who you are.”  His point is that prayer is about getting our identity straight from the start.  In fact, prayer is probably about our need to get it straight every day.  Maybe that explains the title of this chapter, “Become Like a Little Child.” 

Let’s talk together about these questions:

• What does “beginning with who you are” look like in practical ways, for you, in your prayer journey?
• What are some of the ways of “non-personal, nonreal praying that you’ve been taught” that need to be unlearned?

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Watching one of the 33 Chilean miners emerge from “rescue capsule” and fall to his knees in prayer to thank “el Señor”, reminded me of the unbelievable “rescue” achieved for us in Jesus.  It was a simple yet profound image of what our constant reflex should be, that is, to “fall to our knees” in prayer and thank our Father for His work in rescuing and adopting us.  Ours should be a praying life.

David Powlison introduces the book, A Praying Life, with this thought: “A praying life is an oddly normal way to live.  The best our world has to offer is to teach you how to talk to yourself.  Change what you tell yourself, and your feelings about yourself will change.  Change your self-talk, and how you feel about yourself with change.  Talk yourself out of getting upset about what you can’t change.  Do something constructive about what you can change.  Those are the world’s best efforts.  It’s a familiar but abnormal way to live.  But Jesus lives and teaches something different.  What he does – and helps you do – is unfamiliar but normal.  It’s human and it’s humane: how life’s meant to be.  He teaches you how to stop talking to yourself.  He shows how to stop making prayer into a production.  Jesus teaches you to start talking with your father – to “my Father and your Father”.”

It is that life of talking with our Father that we want to encourage one another in as we read this book together.  I have talked to many who have already begun to read the book and are finding benefit in it. 

Beginning November 1^st, I and others will share questions, insights and thoughts about each chapter or section of the book that we hope will encourage dialogue between us.

Filed under: Gospel, Prayer | 2 Comments »