By Charlie Fuller
President Jimmy Carter was asked if God answers prayers. Carter said that God sometimes says, “Yes,” sometimes says, “No,” and sometimes says, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” President Carter was also asked specifically about his praying in the White House. Carter said he prayed 20 to 25 times a day. He prayed over all kinds of presidential decisions. Decisions that impacted individual people. Decisions that impacted the nations of the world. He specifically prayed for wisdom to do the right thing. Prayer was an integral part of his day.
We talk about prayer here at Wilshire all the time. It’s a common topic. We pray “Prayers of the People” every Sunday morning. But how much do we really know about prayer? How deeply have we truly gone in our experience of prayer? Is prayer what we think it is?
One author lists 21 different forms of prayer. I suspect there are more than that. Listed are things like petitionary prayer, intercessory prayer, radical prayer, unceasing prayer, etc.
But what is prayer? It’s worth reviewing the fundamentals.
We often think of prayer as conversation between us and God. Prayer has two forms. Corporate prayers are those we share as a body of believers. Personal prayers are those we craft as individuals, speaking to God and listening to God.
We craft and speak our prayers to God. But if conversation is a dialogue, a two-way interaction, how often do we stop to listen? Brother Lawrence, a 17th century French monk, described prayer as “practicing the presence of God.” Stillness and silence are an integral part of prayer. Without stopping to listen, prayer can quickly devolve from dialogue to monologue. The experience of prayer can easily become an experience that is more focused on us than on God.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel said, “Prayer is dreaming in league with God.” Let’s dream together with God and with each other this morning. May we also find new ways of engaging with God during the week to come. May we learn to “practice the presence of God” in our daily lives.
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