I want to inaugurate this Rector’s Reflections effort with a series of reflections on prayer. As I was asking the Lord about how to proceed with this, it seemed good and right to start with the fundamentals of the Christian life, which all of us need to grow more deeply into. For prayer is not something we learn in Sunday school and then graduate from. It is not something that we just do on Sunday mornings at our worship service. I’ve said it before, and I will keep beating on this drum: Prayer IS the Christian life.
To be a Christian is to pray. To have a relationship with the Triune God is to pray, to communicate, to relate intimately, actively, and unceasingly with the Lord. Prayer is not something that we do in order to prepare us for the great works of the Christian life—prayer IS the great work of the Christian life, and everything else is downstream from this wellspring. Your relationship of abiding in Christ, seeking union with Christ, and living to the glory of Christ is founded above all else on your prayer life. It is essential that all of us are always seeking to grow in this area, for when we grow in prayer we grow in Christ.
How is your prayer life? I ask this question not to make you feel guilty or ashamed, but to encourage you that, if you want to grow as a Christian, there is no other starting point than prayer. I want to encourage you to make time every day that is set apart and made holy unto the Lord. To say, this time and this space I devote to nothing else besides the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of course, you can pray at any moment and in any situation—at work, while doing chores or exercising, or doing anything else. But if you do not make space in your day to give to the Lord your undivided attention, to quiet your heart, mind, and body to be free from other distractions, you are unlikely to hear God speaking back to you. The poet Mary Oliver once wrote, “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” When we give the Lord our attention, we can better devote ourselves to Him.
One really helpful tool for this is the Daily Office, from our Book of Common Prayer. And so, in the coming weeks I am going to use the structure of the Daily Office, particularly from Morning and Evening Prayer, to walk through the shape of a Christian prayer life. This is because I believe that these liturgies are meant to form us into a people of prayer, and can guide us in deepening our prayers and so deepening our Christian life. In the coming weeks, expect to read reflections on confession, praise, Scripture meditation, doctrinal study, intercession, and thanksgiving, as we walk through the shape of the Daily Office as a primer to a Christian prayer life.
If you are unfamiliar with the BCP Daily Office, I made a video a while back about how to engage these prayer services on your own. Our Prayer Book also has Family Prayer, which is a simplified form of the Daily Office for those with children, or if you want to start simple (these start on p. 66 of the 2019 BCP). I would also encourage you to join us on Wednesday mornings at 7:30am at the church for a service of Morning Prayer as you start your day.
Now, I want to address a question that often lingers in the background here: do I have to do the Daily Office if I’m to be a good Christian? Or even a good Anglican? The answer to both of those is, emphatically, no. They are tools for us, and, I would say, reliably good tools of prayer and formation. But doing these is not required, and we put no burden on anyone that you must do prayer in this exact way, or else. But I will always encourage them as reliable forms of prayer that will form us in deeply in Christ, because the form of your prayers will form and shape your life. And so I expect the Daily Office to be instructive for us in the coming weeks as we explore the shape of our prayer lives.
Brothers and sisters, let us know, let us press on to know the Lord (Hosea 6:3). Let us press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ (Phil 3:14). Let us press more deeply into prayer, and there we will grow.
Those are my reflections. Here are some reflection questions for you:
- Does your prayer life reflect the belief you profess?
- What are the biggest obstacles for you in prayer? Are they material, spiritual, mental? What will it take to overcome these?
- What is one goal you could set for yourself in your life and habits of prayer? Let me encourage you to set a goal, and share it with a friend or your home group or Bible study, asking them to help you.