Tag: prayer and meditation

Prayer: a heart-and-soul, “all in” activity

July 10, 2023

A couple of years ago, I read a title for a social media post that stayed with me: “Worry is not a plan.” If you need to get something done or figure out how to do something, worrying about it is not “an activity or a plan that counts toward doing something.”

That statement of “worry is not a plan” is eye-catching because it is insightful about how we emotionally engage with challenging aspects of our lives.

Prayer, on the other hand, is a meaningful activity – fruitful in and of itself (and quite the opposite of worry! In prayer, we are to allow God to be in control rather than worrying that nothing positive is going to happen. Further, God has no ill intention when we give God the reigns.). It is most meaningful when we emotionally engage with prayer.

A perusal of Google Trends (a free online way to look up what people have been searching for online since 2004), indicates that people are searching more often for information about “how to pray.”

There are a good variety of “techniques” for prayer. When I teach classes for people interested in joining my denomination, one of the topics we cover is “types of prayer, ways to pray” (with an assignment to start praying if they aren’t already!) There is intercessory prayer (asking God to intercede – or help – with this or that), contemplative prayer, lectio divina, attending church services (yes, being at church is – in and of itself – prayer, “talking to God” (in a general yet personal sort of way), denomination-specific techniques such as using prayer beads (rosaries, etc.), singing (did you know that the psalms were all meant to be sung and that “everyone who sings prays twice”?) the list goes on. Some approaches to prayer will suit one person, while other forms of prayer work better for the next person. What matters most about prayer is that “we are all in” when we pray.

What’s being “all in” when we pray? It involves actually engaging. Being present. Being present to God. Prayer is communication, a two-way communication – not just us talking at God. When we phone people we know, we wouldn’t just talk at them (one-directional communication) and then hang up, without listening to them in reply; it’s the same with God when we pray – prayer is meant to be a a meaningful, two-way connection (give-and-take).

When I pray, there is rarely human language involved. Perhaps surprisingly, human language isn’t necessarily necessary to communicate within prayer. I tend only to use human language in prayer when doing intercessory prayer (a small percentage of my prayer time). Most of the time, my prayer experience involves “resting in God’s presence” (a phrase from Contemplative Outreach). In other words, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Being in God’s presence, allowing God’s presence to be within my conscious awareness, surrendering to allow God turn me into the person that God wants me to be – this for me leads me toward feeling the fullness of God’s love and toward being a better human being. Feeling God’s presence is an aspect of communication and a productive one at that (like having a loved one or a pet with you in front of a fire when you are feeling down). Feeling loved by God is a form of communication. Sensing that God is changing how I live in the world is a fruitful aspect of prayer.

Prayer in which “we are all in” is life-changing. A meaningful relationship with God is only possible with prayer. Having an active life of faith is only possible with prayer.

We each our best approach to prayer by trying out prayer. Wondering how to have a meaningful relationship with God? Pray regular – at least twice per day, five minutes each time (if that feels like a lot, there are some prayer practices that pray for 20 minutes to an hour at a time – or more). Try out the various types of prayer listed earlier in this post. There is absolutely no “right type of prayer.” There are a number of types of prayer that most certainly have time-tested value; it’s also true that we are all individuals and we all connect with God in our own way.

“How,” might you ask, “will I know when I have found an approach to prayer that works for me?” You’ll know. Prayer will become something that you won’t be able to live without – any more than you can live without air or water.

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages. If you are a new visitor to this parishcatechist.org blog, you are invited to start following this blog (thank you!)!

Surrender in Prayer

July 6, 2023

Prayer is communication, a relationship with God. A few thoughts about this prayer relationship and about our role of surrender within this prayer relationship:

Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).

Relationships are two-way, interactive.

We typically wouldn’t call someone on the phone and have a one-way communication whereby we solely speak to the other person without giving the other person an opportunity to speak, then hang up. Just as human communication is a two-way process, our prayer time with God is meant to be a two-way relationship; we communicate to God and receive God’s communication to us.

In order for us to have a two-way prayer relationship with God, we have to listen to – and be present to – God’s presence in our lives. God wants to have a relationship with us.

How do we go about listening to God’s presence in prayer? My own experience with this is reflected in both Psalm 46:10 (“Be still and know that I am God”) and Contemplative Outeach’s concept of “resting in God’s presence.” Can everyone expect to hear God’s voice in the sense of hearing human language spoken to us by God? Hearing spoken language directed to me by God isn’t something I experience. What I personally experience in prayer is feeling God’s presence; feeling loved by God, feeling that God is directing the course in which I move in life because I am allowing God to do so – this “more than suffices” in my view as two-way communication. The love found in God’s presence provides “peace that passes all understanding” (Phillipians 4:7).

It is in our surrender that we win…..

Our relationship with God is a relationship that happens only when we choose to participate in such a relationship. Again, God the creator wants to have a relationship with us. We have free will; no relationship is a true relationship when it is forced – rather, God gives us the option of whether we are willing to have God be present in our lives.

Our God-and-us relationship is one of creator-and-created, parent-and-child.

Within this creator-and-created relationship, there is a natural place for our surrender to God as our leader-who-molds-and-fashions-our-will-toward-good.

Despite our western ideas about individual autonomy and self-agency, us permitting God’s agency to mold and shape us is liberating. God loves us, wants good for us and our world, and and has capacity for transformational good beyond our comprehension. There is no room for a negative outcome when we allow God to work within and through us.

He must become greater, I must become less (John 3:30).

When we allow God to work in and through us, this leads naturally toward life becoming about God – and, by extension, us focusing on God’s other children – rather than our life being about us. We move out of the way, more of our being becomes about God’s presence within us. Rather than us being me-centered, we become God-centered. In time, this turns into “It is no longer I, but God who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). As a result, we experience the “peace that passes all understanding” (Phillipians 4:7).

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages. If you are a new visitor, you are invited to click through and start following this blog (thank you!).