Introspection: Teach Me to Pray

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Teach Me to Pray

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place.  When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."

Luke 11:1 (CEB)

In the secret, in the quiet place

In the stillness, You are there

In the secret, in the quiet hour I wait, only for You

'Cause I want to know You more

From "In the Secret" by Andy Park

The fall of 2015 was a tumultuous time in my life marked by change and anxiety.  At one point, I realized that my anxiety could be attributed to a lack of trust in God and that my lack of trust in God was perhaps connected to a lack of prayer in my life.  I decided that I needed to start regularly taking the time to entrust my sources of anxiety into God's capable hands through prayer.  Unfortunately, this practice did not last very long.  Lifting up my sources of anxiety to God forced me to think about things I really didn't want to think about, thereby inducing anxiety.

My approach to prayer was an utter failure, but I knew that prayer was still something I needed in my life.  After all, I had grown up knowing that prayer is important.  When I was very young, when my mom tucked me in at night, she prayed with me a bedtime prayer that begins, "Now I lay me down to sleep..."  Thankfully, she taught me a version that didn't force me to contemplate my mortality every night.¹  When I was in kindergarten, I learned a mealtime prayer of thanksgiving that begins, "God is great; God is good."  At some point, while I was in elementary school, I learned the prayer Jesus taught His disciples.

Last year, I delivered a sermon about prayer.  I stand by what I said in that sermon, but sadly my mind and my heart are often thousands of miles apart.  At that time, I knew a bit about prayer, but I was doing an especially good job if I remembered to pray the Lord's Prayer in the morning.

Not long ago, while perusing the religion section of one of the used book stores I frequent, I happened upon the book In Constant Prayer by Robert Benson.  This book is a volume in The Ancient Practices series, which was edited by the late Phyllis Tickle.²  It piqued my interest, so I bought it, thinking that it might be something good to read during Lent.  I was hoping the book might teach me something about prayer, but, when I started reading it, I quickly realized that it was not about prayer in general but about one specific type of prayer, namely the daily office.

The daily office is a liturgy of prayer and praise that is repeated at specific times throughout the day.  If you ever hear someone speak about "praying the hours," he or she is referring to this ancient practice.³  Benson writes that the prayer books of numerous Protestant denominations, including my own, include orders of prayer based on the daily office.⁴  After I read this fact, I took a look at my copy of The United Methodist Book of Worship and found orders of morning, midday, evening, and nighttime prayer.

It turns out that what I needed to develop a habit of morning prayer was a liturgy to follow.  I had already managed to get into the habit of reading the Bible daily by following a certain routine.  In the morning I read a passage from the Daily Lectionary to start my day off on a positive note.  After work, when I go out for coffee, I record my thoughts on the passage using my laptop, hopefully having pondered the passage throughout the day.  When it comes to religion or spirituality, people often look down on routines and checklists, but sometimes we need such things to make sure we do the things we need to do.

Using "An Order of Morning Praise and Prayer" from the book of worship as a guide and incorporating things I learned about the daily office from Benson's book, I cobbled together my own liturgy for morning prayer.  I have been following this order of prayer for just over a month now.

Call to Prayer

O Lord, open my lips,

and I shall declare your praise.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

My denomination's book of worship and hymnal offer a number of morning prayers.  They also contain prayers for specific occasions on the Church calendar, like Holy Week and Eastertide.

Psalter

Included among the Scriptures listed in Daily Lectionary is a Psalm to pray.  On certain occasions, I might pray an alternate passage.  For example, during Holy Week, I prayed the Servant Songs from the Book of Isaiah.⁵  Last week, in my church's bulletin, specific Psalms were recommended based on the topic of the week's sermon.

Scripture Reading

I had already made it a habit to read a Scripture passage from the Daily Lectionary in the morning, so I incorporated it into my morning prayer routine.

Response

A time of silent meditation on the Scripture reading is recommended.  During this time, I might reread the passage, read the notes in my study Bible, or simply think about the passage.

Prayers of Intercession

The book of worship contains "A Litany for the Church and the World," which I have used when leading worship services in the past.  This litany, which includes a number of prompts for prayer ranging from Church unity to global politics, also works well for personal prayer.  Lately, I have been using a prayer of thanksgiving and intercession written specifically for Eastertide.  During Lent, I replaced the prayers of intercession with the prayers of confession that were printed in my church's bulletin.

The Lord's Prayer

Because the Lord's Prayer is so familiar to me, I sometimes rattle it off without even thinking about it, especially when my focus starts to wane.  To help me keep my focus, I often pray some less familiar variations of the prayer.

Blessing

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,

and the love of God,

and the communion of the Holy Spirit

be with us all. Amen.

I do not know how following this order of prayer will affect me in the long run, but I count it a blessing thus far.  Sometimes, starting the day with prayer makes the day seem a bit more holy.  Perhaps it is not that prayer makes the day more holy but that prayer opens my eyes to how holy the day already is.  On other days, I trudge through the order of prayer, half-asleep and concerned that I had not given myself enough time to pray and to also get to work on time.  Benson, a gardener, notes that there are times when prayer is a profound experience, like seeing flowers bloom, but that much of the time it can be mundane, like weeding the flower bed.⁶

For some people, prayer seems to come naturally.  Many of us know people who might be called "prayer warriors" by some - people who seem to have the proverbial "direct line to God" and spontaneously talk with God about anything and everything.  As for me, I need to be taught what to pray.  The Disciples needed to ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, so I guess I'm in good company.  I suppose there are different kinds of prayer for different kinds of pray-ers.  If you, the reader, are struggling with your own practices of prayer, I offer you my experiences and the resources I have found.


Links:

• An Order for Morning Praise and Prayer
• A Litany for the Church and the World
• The Daily Lectionary

Notes:

1. The most common version of that prayer includes the line, "If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."
2. Robert Benson.  In Constant Prayer.  2008, Thomas Nelson.
3. Benson, p. 163
4. Benson, pp. 24-25
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_songs
6. Benson, pp. 55-57

Praying Hands was drawn by Albrecht Dürer around 1508.