Sacred Space: A Life Devoted to Prayer

Anyone who has read even some of my past posts knows I have spent a lot of time talking about the relational nature of God, but now I want to ask what is the point of knowing it if that knowledge does not lead us to enter into it?  God has offered an invitation to journey that allows one to commune and co-labor with him, but upon accepting that request our moving forward in unity hinges on both participants’ (God & Persons) willingness to communicate and communicate often (just as any healthy relationship requires) and for this God has given us the avenue of prayer.  I believe most people to some degree do know this, but what many do not take into account is the extent of their un-readiness for the giving of the self that is required when approaching God.  When we invite Him to communicate with us in prayer and try to respond to him in prayer we should find communicating with God necessitates participation of our entire selves: our disposition, thought, desire, hope, will, activities, and direction of life.  It is only when this happens that prayer can finally evolve, in a more adequate sense, into a holistic practice that allows God to individually and communally shape us, interact with us as-well-as us with him. 

Subconsciously, I think, many avoid prayer altogether for several reasons.  First is because they somehow feel they are not worthy, or are too far removed, but the reality is the feelings of inadequacy and distance have been overcome by grace. The simplicity of coming to God in the humble act of prayer is now enough to close the gap and makes experiencing belonging a real possibility.  Second, are those who make prayer the way to control situations or even use it as a means to maximize personal happiness, but both dispositions will come up short.  Still others neglect the vulnerability of having to face themselves and only focus on prayer for others, but the inability to look inward also renders their actions incomplete.  Thomas Merton rightly said, “Those who attempt to do things for others or for the world without deepening their own self-understanding, freedom, integrity, and capacity to love, will not have anything to give to others.  They will communicate nothing to them but the contagion of their own obsessions, their aggresivity, and their ego-centered ambitions, their delusions about the end and means.”[1]  God uses our prayer-filled lives to bring us into wholeness, hence the reason we devote ourselves to it, but it comes first from responding to God’s love by falling in love with Him. 

Richard Foster expounds on this throughout his book on prayer in which he says to pray is to change and that is a great grace that provides a way for “our lives to be taken over by love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.”[2]  He shows this comes by way of three main streams of prayer: inward, upward and outward.[3]

             1. Inward: We pray prayers of self-examination, prayers of tears for personal wounds, and prayers for inner transformation because we wholly rely on God and thereby posture ourselves before Him in honesty of brokenness allowing His renovating of our will and desire (Eph. 1:17-23).

2.      Upward: We pray prayers that give adoration back to God in response to His overwhelming outpouring of Self and love onto us (Heb. 13:14-15).  We pray to interact with God meditatively, contemplatively and from our heart to His heart.

3.      Outward: We pray prayers in faith to petition, to heal and to intercede on behalf of others despite insurmountable odds (1 Thess. 1:11-12; 3:1-2). We pray because we know that God’s desire to set all things right in the natural is intrinsically tied to unseen and the real conflict is not flesh and blood (Eph. 6:10-12). Therefore, we consistently pray God’s Kingdom into the despair of all situations and conflicts.

So it is not just one of these facets but in all of them that we can discover the heart of prayer is a moment by moment living with God.  

[1] Thomas Merton. Contemplation in a World of Action (Garden City, NY: Doubleday 1971), cited by Lee Camp, Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Radical World (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press 2008), 178.

[2] Richard Foster. Prayer: Finding the Hearts True Home (NY: HarperCollins Publisher 1992), 6.

[3] This is Foster’s three-part outline throughout the book and is certainly worth reading for those wanting know more about prayer.