Prayer
I decided recently that I need to make better use of my mornings, and I have this stack of youth ministry magazines and journals that I keep thinking I should read. So this morning I read an article about prayer and using prewritten prayers - both those found in the Bible and those from the church liturgy.
And then tonight I open my Lenten Bible study, and it's about prayer. Not to mention the fact that Pastor Brian is doing his Lenten sermon series about the Lord's prayer.
As I think about prayer, one thing keeps coming back to me, and actually I sat down to write this post, I had a sense of deja vu that I had written about this when it actually happened. And I did! In a facebook note, of all places. So here is the story from 2009 as I wrote it then...
one of the joys of being in ministry is that every once in awhile you will be going along and think that you are the one doing the teaching, and BAM you realize that the question you just asked of the people in your Bible study is the question that you have been asking yourself for so long and you didn't even realize it... this is what happened to me tonight...
so in youth group this month we're talking about prayer. this week i was leading the 6-7th grade group, which was surprisingly small, only 4 girls. probably in part because of the long weekend, and then just other things going on.... so i am talking with these 4 girls about prayer and i ask the questions:
can we ever understand prayer? why do some prayers get "answered" when others don't? and if prayer doesn't seem to have any impact on the outcome, why bother?
these are all the questions that i have in my planned curriculum (you know the one i wrote a whole day ago and edited earlier in the afternoon before the Bible study...) but then THE question comes... the totally unexpected follow-up:
is prayer more about building a relationship with God or about getting an answer?
um WHAT?!!? where the heck did that come from? but did i recognize the question for what it was - a deep question lurking in my subconcious, one of the hindrances to my prayer life because i felt that there were so many unanswered prayers (and one in particular) that prayer CLEARLY wasn't worth it... not right away - but later i found myself asking these questions...
what if it's not about the answers? what if the outcome really doesn't matter at all? what if it is simply about spending time with God and sharing the deepest desires of my heart? what if it is about building community by sharing the deepest concerns and joys of those in our community? what if it is about learning to love my enemy by sharing the joys and concerns of their life?
what if...?
and you know - these brilliant 6th and 7th grade girls - they got it... God is amazing!
When people talk about answered prayers and unanswered prayers, I come back to this realization in my life. When Jesus is praying for "this cup to be taken" he follows it up with "not my will but yours." Prayer is not about our will. But that doesn't mean we should express our hearts. Jesus was pouring out his heart in that moment, he was talking to his father. Which is also what we do when we pray, and whatever our prayers look like, we should remember that it's all about talking to God and sharing our lives with him.
And then tonight I open my Lenten Bible study, and it's about prayer. Not to mention the fact that Pastor Brian is doing his Lenten sermon series about the Lord's prayer.
As I think about prayer, one thing keeps coming back to me, and actually I sat down to write this post, I had a sense of deja vu that I had written about this when it actually happened. And I did! In a facebook note, of all places. So here is the story from 2009 as I wrote it then...
one of the joys of being in ministry is that every once in awhile you will be going along and think that you are the one doing the teaching, and BAM you realize that the question you just asked of the people in your Bible study is the question that you have been asking yourself for so long and you didn't even realize it... this is what happened to me tonight...
so in youth group this month we're talking about prayer. this week i was leading the 6-7th grade group, which was surprisingly small, only 4 girls. probably in part because of the long weekend, and then just other things going on.... so i am talking with these 4 girls about prayer and i ask the questions:
can we ever understand prayer? why do some prayers get "answered" when others don't? and if prayer doesn't seem to have any impact on the outcome, why bother?
these are all the questions that i have in my planned curriculum (you know the one i wrote a whole day ago and edited earlier in the afternoon before the Bible study...) but then THE question comes... the totally unexpected follow-up:
is prayer more about building a relationship with God or about getting an answer?
um WHAT?!!? where the heck did that come from? but did i recognize the question for what it was - a deep question lurking in my subconcious, one of the hindrances to my prayer life because i felt that there were so many unanswered prayers (and one in particular) that prayer CLEARLY wasn't worth it... not right away - but later i found myself asking these questions...
what if it's not about the answers? what if the outcome really doesn't matter at all? what if it is simply about spending time with God and sharing the deepest desires of my heart? what if it is about building community by sharing the deepest concerns and joys of those in our community? what if it is about learning to love my enemy by sharing the joys and concerns of their life?
what if...?
and you know - these brilliant 6th and 7th grade girls - they got it... God is amazing!
When people talk about answered prayers and unanswered prayers, I come back to this realization in my life. When Jesus is praying for "this cup to be taken" he follows it up with "not my will but yours." Prayer is not about our will. But that doesn't mean we should express our hearts. Jesus was pouring out his heart in that moment, he was talking to his father. Which is also what we do when we pray, and whatever our prayers look like, we should remember that it's all about talking to God and sharing our lives with him.
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