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Every Sunday when we gather for worship, we hear and respond to several different prayers as part of the service. Every devotion book we might use on our own begins or ends with a prayer. Many of us say table prayers at mealtimes, and remember (or still use) simple prayer forms at bedtime. How many of us in the Synod can describe a balanced prayer life, though? We all know to pray when we personally need things, or when people we know are in trouble. But there’s more to prayer than asking. This year, when I heard the ELCA was calling us to prayer, I found out that I couldn’t explain why or how to pray. Since it’s a question students are likely to ask, this year was a great time to find out how to balance my prayers and line them up with God’s will for my life. A Beginner’s Guide to Prayer, by Richard J. Beckmen, was a good place to start. The book grabbed my attention when the author opened the first chapter by asking “Does prayer work?” Beckmen spends a lot of time answering basic questions. He points to prayer as a marker of a close relationship with God. “Prayer…is the way in which we offer all of who we are and what we do in the dialogue with God.” This is very Lutheran! We love knowing that God is with us all the time. So, Beckmen says, our prayers can reflect what we’re doing right at the moment. The author also answers questions about things that get in the way of our prayers. Why don’t I pray? Why don’t I feel anything? Why don’t I get an answer? One of us thought all those things just yesterday, I’m sure. “Throughout his ministry, Jesus presented God as a loving Parent who draws his children close to him.” Beckmen reminds us that God wants to hear our prayers, and works to meet our needs. “In Mark’s gospel, Jesus invites his disciples to come away with him and rest in a desert place. Like Jesus himself, they are invited to come away from distraction and focus on God.” Not long ago, I didn’t know what a “prayer of the heart” was. But quieting one’s thoughts and waiting for a sense of God’s presence and peace is a really refreshing part of a balanced prayer life. “To pray is to have your mind, heart and sense opened to God and to life around you. Prayer is part of…the unfolding of your life in a world God has created and the directing of your life with the purpose God has in mind.” I confess I complain a lot in prayer. I complain about the way things are and ask Him to change them for me. But in the Beginner’s Guide, I was reminded that an important part of prayer is finding out where God wants me to work. “Kyrie eleison” means, “Lord, have mercy!” and we hear it often in worship. But prayers can cry out to God. We can ask for His power to fix things in our world that are too big for us on our own. The recent disaster in Asia needs lots of prayers of “kyrie eleison.” “Jubilation is a word that sounds like what it means. It explodes out of the mouth with breath and energy. It means the expression of great joy. Some days, our prayers should have exclamation marks! As Christians, one of our great gifts is seeing amazing things in the world and knowing to Whom the credit belongs. That’s what jubilation prayers are for—letting God know how happy we are to know Him. And the Beginner’s Guide celebrates this kind of prayer. We’re all beginners at prayer, so this book is really for all of us. It’s full of practical ideas and things to try. Beckmen brings in the Bible basis for all the prayer disciplines he talks about, and tells stories of St. Patrick and Brother Lawrence, among others, to illustrate them. The way we pray says a lot about the way we think of God, and having a balanced prayer life, which is what the book teaches about, helps us understand, as best we can, the whole picture of God.
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