Increasing Your
Want-To (2)
Prayers
in God's world
It took me too many years to pay attention to where I pray. People sometimes speak of a "prayer closet," but I don't tend to want to spend much time in a closet. Then I noticed that Jesus often prayed in places of great beauty or barrenness: on a mountain, or in a garden, or on a lake, or in the wilderness.
It took me too many years to pay attention to where I pray. People sometimes speak of a "prayer closet," but I don't tend to want to spend much time in a closet. Then I noticed that Jesus often prayed in places of great beauty or barrenness: on a mountain, or in a garden, or on a lake, or in the wilderness.
So
I pray outside much more often than I used to. I will even leave my office at
church to take a walk outside for a few minutes to pray during the work day.
Somehow God seems closer to me when I'm closer to what he made.
Looking
in the Mirror
Some have this the prayer examen; it's a kind of "fearless moral inventory" that I take at the end of the day for that particular sin which is most damaging for my own spiritual life.
Some have this the prayer examen; it's a kind of "fearless moral inventory" that I take at the end of the day for that particular sin which is most damaging for my own spiritual life.
For
me, at least in this season I’m in, it's the sin of self-love. I'll ask God
for help. Then I walk through my day, one scene at a time, identifying moments
when I engaged in behaviors displeasing to God and reflected my own tendency to
put myself ahead of God and other people.
I
remember a meeting where a coworker made a sarcastic comment. Instead of
confronting it appropriately, I ignored it, because it was easier for me to
avoid than to muster the courage that confronting would have required. I
remember telling my wife that I was late because of the traffic, when the real
reason was I simply didn't want to interrupt what I was doing enough to make it
on time.
Oddly
enough, I find myself looking forward to this prayer—because it helps me catch
myself more quickly during the day, and has the power to lead me (at least a
little) toward my best self.
Intercession
Several years ago a teacher who had a huge impact on my friends and me passed away. At his funeral, his son showed me the Greek New Testament where, decades ago, he'd written the name of myself, then my wife, then our three children to pray for us each week. It was profoundly moving.
Several years ago a teacher who had a huge impact on my friends and me passed away. At his funeral, his son showed me the Greek New Testament where, decades ago, he'd written the name of myself, then my wife, then our three children to pray for us each week. It was profoundly moving.
So
I started a similar list in the back of my (English) Bible. I have the names of
numbers of friends and colleagues—and their families—written down for each
day of the week. There's something about the thought that I carry on the same
tradition as Dr. Hawthorne that helps make this prayer moving for me.*
Tomorrow’s
post will explore one final way of praying that can increase your want-to.*
*excerpted and paraphrased from John Ortberg’s insights for
Christianity Today, July 6, 2015.
Comment
Comment
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
No comments:
Post a Comment