I felt it was appropriate during this intense time of prayer and fasting at theTURN for me to give some very practical and tangible ways to pray. I practice these myself, and I think it will be helpful to you as well if you give them a try. Today I want to share with you about praying with Scripture. Try it out.
God Speaks To Us First
This fundamental truth makes it possible for us to pray. God has been concerned for each of us long before we became concerned for ourselves.
God desires communication with us and does so in many different ways:
- through God's own word made flesh in Jesus;
- because we are joined together in Christ Jesus, God speaks to us through others (the church, wisdom of the ages, etc.);
- creation took place in the Word (Jn 1:1) and is another form of God's self-revelation;
- through the events and experiences of our lives;
- through the scriptures, a real form of God's presence.
The use of scripture in prayer is the mode of communication that we are concerned with in this exercise. Since God invites us to listen, our response to God's initial move is to listen to what is said. This is the basic attitude of prayer.
How To Go About Listening
What you do immediately before prayer is very important. Normally, it is something you do not rush right into. Spend a few moments quieting yourself and relaxing, settling yourself into a prayerful and comfortable position. In listening to anyone, you try to tune out everything except what the person is saying to you.
In prayer this can be done best in silence and solitude. Select a short passage from scripture. Read it through a few times to familiarize yourself with it. Put a marker in the page. Try to find a quiet place where you can be alone and uninhibited in your response to God's presence. Try to quiet yourself interiorly. Remember as we talked about, Jesus would often go up to a mountain alone to pray with his Abba. In an age of noise, activity, and tensions like our own, it is not always easy or necessary to forget our cares and commitments, the noise and excitement of our environment. Never feel constrained to blot out all distractions. Anxiety in this regard could get between ourselves and God.
Sometimes in preparing for prayer, relax and listen to the sounds around you. God's presence is as real as they are. Be conscious of your sensations and living experiences of feeling, thinking, hoping, loving, wondering, desiring, etc. Then, conscious of God's unselfish, loving presence in you, address God simply and admit that you are helpless and in need of Him.
God is present in you through the Spirit, who speaks to you now in scripture, and who prays in you and for you. Ask for the grace to listen to what God says. Begin reading Scripture slowly and attentively. Do not hurry to cover much material.
If it recounts an event of Jesus' life, be there in the mystery of it. Share with the persons involved, e.g., a blind man being cured. Share their attitude. Respond to what Jesus is saying. Some words or phrases carry special meaning for you. Savor those words, turning them over in your heart.
When something strikes you, e.g.,
- you feel a new way of being with Jesus or he comes to you in a new way ( e.g., as healing or accepting you in a way different than other times);
- you are happy and content just to be in God's presence;
- you are struggling with or disturbed by what the words are saying;
- you experience new meaning;
- you are moved to do something loving.
This is the time to …pause.
This is God speaking directly to you in the words of Scripture.
- Do not hurry to move on.
- Wait until you are no longer moved by the experience. Don't get discouraged if nothing seems to be happening. Sometimes God lets us feel dry and empty in order to let us realize it is not in our own power to communicate or to experience consolation. God is sometimes very close to us in seeming absence (Ps 139:7-8). God is for us entirely, in a selfless way, accepting us as we are, with all our limitations -- even with our seeming inability to pray. A humble attitude of listening is a sign of love for God, and a real prayer from the heart. At these times remember the words of Paul, "The Spirit, too, comes to help us in our weakness, for when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, it is the Spirit who expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words" (Rom 8:26-27).
Relax in prayer. Remember, God will speak to you in God's own way. "Yes, as the rain and snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do" (Is 55:10-11).
Spend time in your prayer just being conscious of God's presence in and around you. If you want to, speak about the things you are interested in or wish to thank God for, your joys, sorrows, aspirations, and so forth. (Adapted from Armand Nigro)
What's most important? That you are indeed praying during this FAST!
pcraig
1 comment:
Great post. Very helpful.
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