A Posture of the Heart
(6 Minute Read)
By Naomi Lorenzin
I’ve been reading through “Celebration of Discipline,” by Richard Foster - and then I came to this chapter on prayer.
This was a tricky chapter for me to wrap my brain around, and honestly, there are a few things yet to be connected. I have a note in this chapter of my book saying “is there really a ‘formula’ to His power?’ among several question marks, stars and exclamation marks.
This is also a massive topic, there are so many different ways for us to practice prayer that we won’t cover here, but I strongly encourage you to search for and find a couple ways that you connect with and pursue them!
A right way to pray?
I have always told my kids, there’s no right way to pray. But this chapter challenges that and the more I ponder it the more I think ‘huh’…that’s it, that’s the most accurate word I have to express my thoughts on that for now. What do you think about that? Is there a ‘right’ way to pray?
Let’s grapple with this together in hopes of finding some encouragement and direction in our prayer lives that we can then pass on to the kids we love.
“Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. Of all the spiritual disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father…Real prayer is life creating and life changing…To pray is to change…” (Foster, page 33)
To be in perpetual (never-ending) communion with God – “exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings” (Oxford dictionary). Being in the presence of God is central to the spiritual life. It is life giving and life changing to walk with a continual awareness and sensitivity to God’s presence in your everyday life. With such an awareness and deep relationship we can’t help but be more thoughtful and intentional about choices we make.
“The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ. William Blake tells us that our task in life is to learn to bear God’s ‘beams of love.’ (Foster, page 33)
Immerse yourself
I was driving home one evening, and as the sun was setting behind a heavy cloud, there came beams of light breaking through. Straight and perfect, shining through with such intention.
Imagine your life is the cloud and as the Son sinks deeper into you there is a natural intention that begins to lead your life, as beams of His love naturally shine through you warming those you encounter. It’s not by any effort of the cloud, but it’s the Son that gently moves in slow and steady. Imagine living a life that is so immersed in the love of God that it is virtually effortless to feel and share that love.
“Listening to God is the necessary prelude to intercession.” (Foster, page 39)
That awareness comes, when we begin to listen first in our prayers. We become more interested in God’s desires than our own. We need to spend time quieting our minds and hearts of all our wishes, and ask God, what do you wish for this situation? What is your plan, Lord?
Posture of the heart
When we read Paul’s words to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1Thess 5:17) we may think that’s kind of inconvenient and also…how? A couple weeks ago my professor said “to pray without ceasing isn’t actually an intellectual activity, but it’s a posture of the heart.” As we practice keeping an awareness of Christ with us, we will begin to see how He leads us in the big and little things of everyday life. We begin to live into His good and perfect will as we lean in and feel his heartbeat.
Foster mentions the relationship the disciples had with Jesus. They spent nearly every waking moment with Jesus, they really knew Him, who He was, and what He was about. They prayed for others with such confidence ‘stand’, ‘walk’, ‘be well’. Are you confident to pray so boldly? I’m not sure I am. If we listen first, asking God in each moment what His good and perfect will is, we will begin to see more prayers answered, because we are praying then according to His desires.
“’You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions’ (James 4:3). To ask rightly involves transformed passions. In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thoughts after him: to desire the things he desires, to love the things he loves, to will the things he wills. Progressively we are taught to see things from his point of view” (Foster, page 33-34).
We are always growing in our prayer lives, gaining more and more of the perspective of God, hearing His will and then praying it into existence. Foster likens this journey of understanding and praying the will of God to a marathon runner who trains hard and consistently. Someone who jogs occasionally isn’t generally going to sign up for a marathon next week…if they do, they will experience the hurt! We need to exercise our prayer muscles, and be gracious with where we’re at now. Start where you’re at, and the more you practice and train, the stronger you become.
Practicing prayer
Here are some different ways to train and practice prayer for yourself, and to teach your kids…it’s never too early to learn to pray!
Most of us know the acronym of P.R.A.Y (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) right? We’ve been doing this one with our kids the past couple months and it’s really fun to hear them. We take turns one kid shares for one letter. To praise, simply means tell God something awesome about Him. Repent, this is either personal or something as a family we need to work on. Ask, this can be for ourselves, or others. We try to keep this from being a wish list, but God cares about the wish lists of our littles, too! Yield, we sit quiet for at least 60 seconds and then can share if we want about what we heard if anything.
A new acronym I’ve recently learned is through this app Lectio 365 https://www.24-7prayer.com/resource/lectio-365/ . They begin with a Pause saying “As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly, to re-center by scattered senses upon the presence of God.” They read a passage of scripture, then Rejoice and Reflect on it. Ask, what is there in my life that needs to change and become more like the passage read. Then end again with Yield, to listen for God. I highly recommend this app!
Another suggestion Foster offers is to give permission in using imagination. Have them imagine God right there with them, what would he say to them? What would they say to Him? If they can imagine it, they can go deeper in their engagement with Him. The example used in the book is one of an ill baby and her preschool aged sibling prays with him, imagining when they lay hands on her that God’s power flows right through their hands and into the baby sister fixing all the things that need to be fixed!
“But Jesus taught us to come like children to a father. Openness, honesty, and trust mark the communication of children with their father.” (Foster, page 41).
Invite kids to look for God throughout their day. Encourage them to become aware of His presence with them always, to develop the relationship first, becoming so connected with the Father, that whatever we ask in Jesus’ name will be so!
Let’s teach kids to simply rest in his presence, to know the ease of the Christian journey, becoming truly ‘deep people’ so in tune with God, they can’t help but change the world as they shine beams of love everywhere they go.
Read more reflections from Naomi: