Unceasing Prayer

The Concept

Isaac the Syrian: “When the Spirit has come to reside in someone, that person cannot stop praying; for the Spirit prays without ceasing in him. No matter if he is asleep or awake, prayer is going on in his heart all the time. He may be eating or drinking, he may be resting or working—the incense of prayer will ascend spontaneously from his heart. The slightest stirring of his heart is like a voice which sings in silence and in secret to the Invisible.”

This constant praying by the Spirit within us is the lifeline we tap into when we are in communion with God. Awareness of this steady stream of prayer is what Unceasing Prayer practices to make our natural state. It is more subconscious than Praying the Ordinary, though they are closely related and are both truly a result of new creation and not human effort. But they do start as unnatural and intentional discipline, to the end, as Foster writes, that “in time these holy habits will do their work of integration so that praying becomes the easy thing, the natural thing, the spontaneous thing – the hard thing will be to refrain from prayer.”

We learn from fellow saints who have gone before us in this type of prayer, from Brother Lawrence, Frank Laubach, Madame Guyon, and Francis of Assisi of whom it was said he was “not so much a man praying as a prayer itself made man.” Practical exercises we can learn from them are:

• Breath Prayer – A prayer you can repeat in one breath (for example, "The Jesus Prayer": “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”) Quotes from Scripture will work, or ask the Lord himself to give you a personal prayer. Select something, then pray it as often as possible, allowing it to be planted deep within you.
• Practicing the Presence – It's not impossible to order our mental life on more than one level at once. While going about daily business, we can retire to the private chapel of our heart at any time. This is how we can act in God's will, because we have sought his will! Laubach says, “That is my task, to hold my will to the current of power, and let You sweep through endlessly.”
• Graduating Intensity: 1) Begins as conspicuous, even artificial. Find a way to remind yourself to pray in every moment. 2) Aim to be unaware of having said the prayer, like a tune you suddenly realize you've been humming. 3) Center it in the heart, bringing sentiment and reason in accord, so you think with love. 4) As it consumes you, prayer becomes your very personality.

Today we are a distracted people, and Unceasing Prayer is a way of speaking peace into the chaos, of focusing our fragmented legion activities around a constant Center of Reference. Theophane the Recluse says, “Thoughts continue to jostle in your head like mosquitoes. To stop this jostling, you must bind the mind with one thought, or the thought of One only.”

The Experience

This is definitely not something to be "mastered" in a week. Though, just being intentional about repeating a prayer every time I remembered to was a blessing in itself. It is astonishing actually how many minutes of the day can be spent outside the awareness of eternal divine communion!

I believe God gave me a short personal prayer at the beginning of the week, one I can repeat until it becomes my character, and then I spent the whole week trying to change it! But I have accepted it now as my heart's refrain for a season... too personal to share here.

There is not much to add to what was stated above, except that I do feel I learned a bit more about what it means to be in God's presence. Being in God's presence is a position - a position not dependent on my broadcasting to him, not dependent on my hearing from him, not even a feeling of peace or of spiritual ecstasy. Being in God's presence is the assurance of faith, a position where we find ourselves based on faith alone.

Hebrews 10:22 "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water."

The Prayer of Tears

The Concept

The Prayer of Tears: “Being cut to the heart over our distance and offense to the goodness of God. It is weeping over our sins and the sins of the world. It is entering into the liberating shocks of repentance. It is the intimate and ultimate awareness that sins cut us from the fullness of God's presence.” It is penthos in the Greek or compunction in seldom-used English.

But rejoice! This is no morbid thing. The early church writers called this inner turmoil “a deep joy.” For joy is the result of a heart humbled in perpetual contrition. “May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy!” (Ps. 126:5)

Tears touch the emotive center of our lives, an outward sign that an inner fuse has been lit. This prayer is not a purposeful act, not some conjured emotion, it is the truth of brokenness. Foster suggest we pray for it as a gift: the gift of repentance, the gift of mercy, the “charism of tears.” And he suggests it is a result of confession, not just the confession of sinful actions but of a distance from God, a reality all mortals occupy (Rom. 7:21-25) - wretched men that we are! The tears that begin in grief become tears of joy at the assurance of Christ's forgiveness.

Foster ended the chapter with a prayer from my own heart:
“Gracious Jesus, it is easier for me to approach you with my mind than with my tears. I do not know to pray from the emotive center of my life or event how to get in touch with that part of me. Still, I come to you just as I am. I am sorry for my many rejections of your overtures of love. Please forgive all my offenses against your law. I repent of my callous and insensitive ways. Break my stony heart with the things that break your heart.... Amen.”

The Experience

God has been so patient with me, and so intentional. This experience was just what I have needed, and everything has fallen into place like ordered choreography. At the beginning of the year, the Lord began speaking to me about watering dry ground. The story of 2 Kings 3 changed my life and I've been waiting for the deep digging of trenches to fill my sandy heart with abundant, blood-red-in-the-light water. I've also been reading the gospel of John, so rich in water language, and I've been waiting for a cleansing and a quenching (John 4:14).

Yet in the past few months, my heart has become an even drier desert: a waning of prayer life, a numbing of emotion, a crisis of faith, a tragedy of apathy. But I made a decision to push on with this prayer journey - even when I didn't "feel it," and I came upon the Prayer of Tears. Tears naturally fit with the water-desert imagery God has been giving me.

This past week, how I longed to cry, like I've never longed before! How I prayed to be broken – no, not to be broken, to be made aware of my brokenness! I confessed; I saw my wretchedness and claimed the beautiful righteousness of Christ. I saw my coldness and claimed the love of Christ who loves through me. Admittedly, much of this was mental exercise though I longed so much for it to be true. There is a real disconnect between my mind and my heart, but I have been forcing myself to pray as though I were whole.

Sunday, Pastor J. preached about Ephesus' first love. His focus was not on personal relationship, but on loving the brethren. He spoke about our tendency of gorging on knowledge and gorging on solitude and thus neglecting our call to love one another. This was the shock I needed back to life. Then Sunday night there was a conference on our identity in Christ. The speaker warned about the dangers of self-sufficiency and I recognized it so in my life. He called us away from a life of behavior-based acceptance because we have been re-born righteous, we have been re-born into God's love, we cannot earn it more than we have it already. As a result, we are moved to acceptance-based behavior and utter dependency. Everything just fell into place for me (though reading this, I see it is less a logical progression than a revelation beyond words). But just to clench it, my sisters, unaware of this project, have been crying around me constantly this week - even during grace over a meal - showing me how beautiful this gift of brokenness is.

No, I am not there. I have not cried. I remain deceived by self-sufficiency, but I believe I am not incurable and I have not been abandoned. I am moving away from over-thinking about it and committing to living it, by the grace of God.

Intercessory Prayer

The Concept

We are called to serve others, but through physical service we realize that the real needs of others are beyond our capacity to give, so we must turn to God in prayer. We are made to be a kingdom and priests (Rev. 1:6), and Intercessory Prayer is part of our priestly ministry. Of ourselves, we have no place in the heavenly court, but through Christ we are given the authority of his name, so that we may approach God in freedom and with confidence (Eph. 3:12). And we have the beautiful promise that when we pray in Jesus' name, i.e. in accord with his nature – “if you remain in me and my words remain in you – ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7). In this way, Intercessory Prayer, is learning to become an abiding branch on the Vine.

As poetic and beautiful this exchange is, the reality is that often we are discouraged when our intercessory prayers seemingly effect no change. Foster says “this is because we are entering the strange mix of divine influence and human autonomy.” God does not force men into compulsory obedience (Ps. 32:9), but Jesus did tell his disciples to pray always and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). There is a reason to persist. I believe that faithful repetition does not force God's hand, but it does grows our heart toward that person, and it stirs up the cosmos, where our struggle is located (Eph. 6:12).

A good part of this prayer, and all prayer!, is the silent listening for and inviting of the Spirit to guide the content of prayer, to bring people to your attention and, often, to intercede with sighs to deep for words (Rom. 8:26). Because the Holy Spirit relates to people differently, it is often enlightening and encouraging to pray with others. Corporate intercessory prayer, in agreement and with the support of others, is an important component of praying for others. Meetings with Christians should naturally and easily turn towards prayer.

1 Samuel 12:23: “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you. ”

The Experience

So far in this prayer blog experience, there has been a lot of inward focus in prayer. At this point, I am truly thrilled to turn that focus on others. However, ultimately, I have learned and will ever be learning – though it seems obvious – the focus of all prayer is Christ.

I have recently joined a new women's group in my church. There are only four of us, and none of us knew each other just two months ago. It can be hard for me to really open up and connect with people. But this week I focused especially on praying for each of those women, and when I saw them again, I felt closer to them, as if their lives were truly intertwined with mine. I believe the unity of the Church that Jesus, Paul, John, etc. insisted upon will only be possible when the Church prays for each other ceaselessly, in accord with the nature of Christ.

Quite timely for this topic, Osama bin Laden's death was announced this week. A year ago at a prayer conference, we were asked to pray for the salvation of a famous person, and my group chose Osama bin Laden. In praying for him that day, and on and off since, a place in my heart has grown for this man. In the face of so much celebration over his death and a mission accomplished, I truly grieved for the end of the hope that he might live a redeemed life, and I did mourned the human loss of a wicked misguided destructive man who once laid innocent in his mother's arms.

Love is the power of intercessory prayer, and love's increase is its result. Amen!