This afternoon the pastors at Antioch got together with the elders (even though we don’t officially have elders yet :) for prayer. It was rich —
We began with 10 – 15 minutes of silent prayer on our knees. It was my favorite part. I could have gone another hour just talking and listening to God on my own.
What hit me is this… I know so many people that long for the ability to sit quietly in prayer and have it be incredibly meaningful (and not awkward). So I thought it was about time to give a “Top 5 List” for developing a deep prayer life (let’s face it, we all want it, we all could do better at it and we all can benefit from each others’ experiences).
Here goes:
- Make it a discipline – nothing so complex comes about easily. Jesus said “seek and you will find,” and we need to make sure we don’t miss that whole “seek” part.
- Learn to view prayer as conversation – this means that sometimes group prayer is a distraction and that listening is as important as speaking. It also means that you need to pursue silence and solitude, which is the next point…
- Pursue silence & solitude – it is important to give enough time for prayer to be meaningful. We don’t expect a conversation to be deep if it lasts only a minute and we don’t expect to write meaningful things if we don’t sit down at the computer and focus for more than five minutes, so how can we expect prayer to be meaningful if we don’t commit the time, energy and emotional space for it to be meaningful?
- See prayer as ongoing and limitless rather than as a “meeting” or a block of time – Most people think prayer is what happens when your eyes are closed and your hands folded. When the eyes open and the hands go to other things then “prayer time” is over. The most significant thing anyone taught me was to make the most important prayer time that between prayer meetings and folded hands. Prayer should be viewed as an ongoing dialogue with God as you are walking through life. Trust me, it is possible to have God permeate your thoughts and attention for the better part of the day!!
- Realize that prayer will be an ongoing area of growth and exploration – so find the right people to learn from and find the right books to read. Tops on my list are Hearing God by Dallas Willard, Experiencing God Through Prayer by Jeanne Guyon, and The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence — these, more than any others, have taught me to seek God through authentic and ongoing dialogue.
