Do you struggle with prayer? I sure do. I remember in high school reading Paul’s instructions to the church in Thessalonica:
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess 5:16-18).
I could get my head around rejoicing always and giving thanks in all circumstances (these seemed like attitudes I could carry with me), but what in the world would it mean to pray continually? Some translations say “pray without ceasing.” Huh?
For me, prayer was more of an activity than an attitude, so it was difficult to wrap my mind around what this could mean. Was Paul just being superlative to make a point?
[tweet “Pray without ceasing? What in the world does that mean?”]
Learning from dead people (again)
Later, though, I made a discovery about how Christians have been practicing “praying without ceasing” for centuries. It’s called the Jesus Prayer, and it comes from Jesus’ parable in which a Pharisee thanks God that he’s such a great person, but the tax collector prays, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:10-14).
The tax collector’s prayer is heard by God, Jesus says. The prayer that developed in Christian tradition, then, goes like this:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.
Some people call it a “breath prayer,” because it is easily memorized (try it, I bet you’ll have it down in 15 seconds or so), and because you can pray it under your breath,
- “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” as you breathe in,
- “Have mercy on me” as you breathe out.
Playing the “game with minutes”
Praying this kind of prayer several times a day re-orients my thought-life toward God in humility. In fact, you can intentionally train your brain to pray more continually by doing an exercise Frank Laubach called “The Game With Minutes.” Here’s how he did it:
During the course of his normal day, (he was a literacy advocate and missionary in the Philippines) Laubach would seek to bring his thoughts back to God once per minute for an hour.
The Jesus Prayer is a great way to bring your thoughts back to God, and so I’ve tried this several times, using my phone’s timer app to remind me every minute. Every time the timer goes off, I pray the Jesus Prayer and reset the timer. Rinse and repeat for an hour.
A few things I discovered as I practiced this:
- It’s actually hard work to do this! I realized how quickly I “lost” my sense of God’s presence during my normal workday, and that training myself to pay closer attention to God took a bit of effort.
- It really did “pay off” quickly. Even though it was tiring to do so, I found the work I was doing while seeking to pray continually was just better. It’s difficult to describe, but I was just more effective while praying continually – confident, filled with peace, and more effective and creative.
A trinitarian take on unceasing prayer
Awhile back, I came across a modified trinitarian expansion of the Jesus Prayer from N.T. Wright. I really love this prayer as well, but you can’t quite pray it in one breath. But it works really well as a way to “prime the pump” of unceasing prayer in the morning.
I repeat this prayer 3-5 times in the morning to turn my attention to God and orient my day toward his kingdom. It goes like this:
Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth,
Set up your kingdom in our midst.Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,
Have mercy on me, a sinner.Holy Spirit, breath of the Living God,
Renew me and all the world.
I like it because:
- It’s trinitarian. Any spiritual exercise that orients us toward the Triune God is a winner, in my book.
- It balances individual concerns and community concerns. We ask for mercy and renewal for “me” but also ask God to set up his kingdom in “our” midst, and renew “all the world.”
- It forms our desires and imagination. It’s so easy to turn prayer into a wishing game, and God into a genie-in-a-bottle. This prayer trains us to want the things that God wants, to ask for the things that will truly bring our flourishing.
- It’s short enough to memorize easily. It’s theologically robust, but compact enough that most people can memorize it in a few minutes. If you pray it every day, it’s now available to you for the rest of your life!
Learning to pray from those who know how
I used to think “authentic” prayer was the same thing as spontaneous prayer. Prayer that was made up on the spot was “truer” than pre-written prayers. But now I see what nonsense that is.
[tweet “I used to think authentic prayer was spontaneous prayer. But that’s nonsense.”]
Prayer is not just about me expressing myself to God, it’s about being formed by God into the image of Christ. Prayer is something we must learn, as the disciples intuited when they asked Jesus to teach them to pray.
One of the ways we learn to pray is by submitting to the wisdom of those who’ve gone before us in faith. That’s all tradition is: the collected wisdom of our ancestors in the faith. It doesn’t make sense NOT to pay attention to them, right?
So I’m going to do the Game With Minutes today while I work on some elements of our church plant.
[tweet “How To (Start To) Pray Without Ceasing”]
What prayer exercises have you found helpful in your quest to pay more attention to God’s work in and around you?
Great reflections, Ben! Considering your implementation of Laubach’s exercise particularly inspired me. I’ve never tried it before using a timer app–but I’m going to give it a go for this week. Looking forward to the joy and the worthy hard work. Thanks again for writing.
JohnTracy2 That’s great John! Blessings.
Ben, can we get a series along these lines? Particularly on the issue of learning to pray from those who know how. My wife and I have been praying an Examen at the end of the day recently and have benefited greatly from reviewing our day with God and being aware of his presence throughout the next day.
I’ve also used the six pieces of the Lord’s Prayer as a framework for praying throughout the day. I find it helpful in the car on the way to different places.
The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 has been on my mind a lot lately. During my tasks around the store, I pray this prayer from Jesus over different people I know. For example:
Ben’s Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
in Ben’s heart and in Ben’s life as it is in heaven.
Give Ben today his daily bread,
and forgive Ben his debts,
as Ben also has forgiven his debtors.
And lead Ben not into temptation,
but deliver Ben from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom that Ben lives under,
yours is the power at work in and around Ben,
and yours is the glory that Ben exists for.
Amen.
As a variation, I also pray this prayer over groups of people like couples, families, leaders, and other churches in our community.
Good thoughts Joelz.
After reading the Mathew’s Gospel where God (Father) says of Jesus “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him” and moving on to the situation in the same gospel where a bunch of Jesus’ disciples asks/requests him, “Teach us how to pray”, I also pray the ‘Lord’s Pray’ on a personal basis several times daily. “My Father in heaven……” However I made some editorial additions at appropriate places with words, phrases and sentences like… ‘long-suffering (patient), gracious, compassionate and merciful …. ‘daily food, shelter and clothing’…. ‘forgive my sins(which includes debts) as I forgive those who sin against me.
I have not prayed for third parties for their behalf, like you did for Ben, reason being I am not sure the same third parties forgive sins of unknown forth parties ! (Has Ben forgiven his debtors ?)
Speaking of Our Father, there is very interesting booklet titled ‘The Father Speaks To His Children’, a record of revelation the Father gave to one Elisabetta Ravasio in 1932. In short, the revelation states that, with the proviso of obeying the Ten Commandments of God (now discarded as old testament stuff by the mainstream Christians), the Father is waiting to shower His blessings on those who call on Him as my Father, even here on earth where we live.
joelz Thanks Joel – really great!
joshamorgan That’s a great idea, Josh. We are starting to get into these kinds of things in one of my coaching groups, so that might be a good point of integration.