Some people seem to have the gift of prayer. Some people seem to be prayer warriors.
Well, I use to think that.
I think for a long time the above way of thinking was a convenient excuse for me sucking at prayer. But to my understanding no where in scripture is there prayer warriors or people gifted in prayer. But rather prayer is a constant presence in the life of King Jesus servants. No exceptions, no excuses.
So with my main excuse out in the open I have begun to pursue a life of prayer (I have a ridiculously long ways to go).
Here is the first bend in this journey I literally just started.
Families should pray together, right? I know some pray before meals with ease and regularity but what about praying with your spouse? I have the incredible blessing to have a few men to hang with whenever we have time and the subject of praying with our wives came up. Now we all love Jesus, most of the time, but in our honesty we confessed we never really prayed with our wives unless urgent prayer concerning family arise. As a pastor I was embarrassed to admit it, shouldn't all godly men pray with their wives.
Why not? Was it pride? Was it the idea of spiritual vulnerability. For me I think it was both of these. So I took the plunge a week ago and it was awkward and weird at first but it has been awesome. The crazy thing is that my wife years ago asked for this but in my stubbornness and insecurity I made excuses.
It has only been a week but I pray that with Jesus help we will develop a marriage and family devoted to praying together.
Jesus, thank you for Your unique desire to have conversations with us. Please give us a deep desire to slow our busy lives down and hear your loving voice. We pray that within our marriages and families conversations with you will be desired and will happen often. Continue to remove the pride of our hearts and make us a people who are vulnerable before the King.
In King Jesus name, Amen.
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6 comments:
glad to hear it man.
i think it has a lot to do with what you might call spiritual nakedness and how we so often are not happy with our "spiritual body type", or how our naked spiritual selves look in the light. I mean, lets be honest, there really isnt anything to vulnerable about running through the laundry list before dinner. "Jesus, thanks for the food and sunshine...". But man, you start to open yourself up with another person, "God this is what Im struggling with..." and someone has the opportunity to see a lot that is often hidden. (often for good reason (as far as preserving the facade of a beautiful "spiritual body image" is concerned) , because being honest with God often deals with some unsightly stuff that, honestly, I dont want my wife to see.)
The other part of it, though, I think the Church is to blame. At least the Church tradition that I grew up in. There are certain things you dont pray about around other people. Prayer is generally restricted to G and PG material, and very rarely PG-13. So what happened, and your milage may vary, is that I came away feeling like Im a crappy Christian because no one else seems to be engaging God about this stuff. And if no one else is doing it, "well Im not going to be the one to bring up some R rated prayer requests". The other part of it though was that there is a certain, shall we say formula, that prayer seemed to have to take. It generally started "Dear..." What? Dear? I think you know where this is going...
But also it seemed to have a certain piety about it that I never thought I had. Or that my spirituality didnt fit that pattern. Prayer I heard growing up was always concise and well thought out. That isnt the way my brain works (you think!?). It all seemed to amount to a rather intimidating thing...which seems to render folks a little spiritually crippled, so to speak.
Hmm, that piety thing. No, I never thought I was pious enough to pray so other people could hear my prayer and my prayers are NEVER well thought out. But I feel like I talk to God alot, but I never follow the "structure" that we've been taught, so then I think "well, maybe I'm not praying".
I do agree with you, Ben, the way we were brought up you only pray about certain things, but I doubt that's the way it's supposed to be. If you are honest with God, yes, there's some yucky stuff that comes up. But I can't imagine He would expect it to be otherwise.
" there's some yucky stuff that comes up. But I can't imagine He would expect it to be otherwise."
Thats exactly my point. Its as though we know what the "church answers" are and praying about some things (the things that expose us as sinful humans) are very much not the churchy thing to be praying about.
Many will say that church is a place that fellow Christians can join together and worship. Well what really freaking ticks me off is that now we have to be cautious around our brothers and sisters? I totally agree with you ben and sue. No one wants to bring up some yucky stuff because oh crap someone might get uncomfortable. Well I think it is time for a change....
Whatever happened to God being a close friend? Someone you can talk to at all times? Isn't that what praying is all about? Getting it out there and off our chest? Seems like it makes us always feel a lot better. R rated or not.... Like Sue said earlier, she feels like she talks to God alot. So do I.
I agree though. Genuine prayer is what is needed. Especially in small groups and with your spouse. Kudos to you Chris for starting up prayer with your wife. Hopefully we can start down the same track.
hey its Murray and Henry and we can't wait for the missions' trip!!!!!!!!!! We are so excited and hope nothing stupid happens. Shout out to Magitha and Miller cause we love ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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