Formation Prayer

The Concept

I will let Foster define this prayer: “The primary purpose of prayer is to bring us into such a life of communion with the Father that, by the power of the Spirit, we are increasingly conformed to the image of the Son. This process of transformation is the sole focus of Formation Prayer.”

Unless we are changed by a life of prayer, we will not maintain a life of prayer. God is a gracious father, and he teaches us to press in deeper and deeper into our relationship by pulling back in seasons to wean us of our selfishness and complacency. Each step towards him is not a step on a path that stops at perfection, but a step that leads us endlessly deeper and deeper into infinite revelation.

The realm of prayer is both where we pursue God and where we are pursued by God. There are seasons for striving and initiating and seasons for yielding and receiving, but always we must be malleable like clay in the hands of the potter. We do not change ourselves, his power alone “can melt this heart of stone.” Evelyn Underhill calls us to be “completely abandoned in the hands of God.” Foster asked us to imagine it as an adult guiding the hand of a child to draw on a paper. Humility is required if we are to be truly transformed.

I don't know any better way to summarize the intent of this prayer than by this passage from Richard Foster's book:

As winter approaches each year, I like to watch our large maple in the backyard begin to lose its covering of summer green and take on a funeral brown. As the leaves drop, one by one all the irregularities and defects of the tree are exposed. The imperfections are always there, of course, but they have been hidden from my view by an emerald blanket. Now, however, it is denuded and desolate, and I can see its real condition.

Winter preserves and strengthens a tree. Rather than expending its strength on the exterior surface, its sap is forced deeper and deeper into its interior depth. In winter a tougher, more resilient life is firmly established. Winter is necessary for the tree to survive and flourish.

Instantly you see the application. So often we hide our true condition with the surface virtues of pious activity, but, once the leaves of our frantic pace drop away, the power of a wintry spirituality can have effect.

To the outward eye everything looks barren and unsightly. Our many defects, flaws, weaknesses, and imperfections stand out in bold relief. But only the outward virtues have collapsed; the principle of virtue is actually being strengthened. The soul is venturing forth into the interior. Real, solid, enduring virtues begin to develop deep within. Pure love is being birthed.

The Experience

I didn't want to blog this week, because I wanted to hold out until I could pinpoint “my transformation” and proudly present it to cyberspace. But instead, there was no momentous occasion that I could look at and say “See! That's where I was changed!” But out of respect to transparency and humility, I will instead post about what I was shown about how to change.

As I was praying this week, the words of Ephesians kept coming to mind, and I realized that no amount of striving for a change of heart can work. But striving to know God more, to understand and truly befriend Jesus Christ, this is the path that leads to heart transformation. Paul prayed:

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”(Eph. 17-21)

I was practically born into the faith. And though I spent some years flagrantly sinning, I never intentionally hurt anyone other than myself. When I came back to Christ and the church, it felt like returning home, and I never had a huge salvation moment as an adult. Of course, I know Jesus died for me and that I am a sinner and the wages of my sin is death, but I've never been moved by this knowledge: I've never cried for this grace, and I've never considered this exchange impossible. In my pride, I've never doubted my worthiness to receive this cosmic gift. It's not out of stubbornness or some ridiculous self-deification, but it does shed a light on what parts of my heart are in desperate need of transformation!

But knowing Jesus more will release the proper responses to his infinite goodness and grace. Knowing him more intimately will cause my knees to buckle before his majesty. The more I know of love, the more I can share it. The more I know his character, the more I will tend towards conforming to it. The more I know his holiness, the more I will recognize my wretchedness. The more I intimate his Truth, the more my life will be clothed in humility. Today, I pray that I can join in the prayer of Job (42:5&6):

My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.