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jenny_islanderThe heading of this section is "Learning to Pray."
Foster begins Celebration of Discipline with meditation, or learning to perceive and inhabit the entire real world. In this chapter he outlines the process of prayer as a sort of reversal-and-fulfillment of meditation: instead of learning to look beyond the immediate world of matter and time to the rest of Creation, we look the other way, from where we stand with God. "Live within me," says the Lord, "and I will live within you" (John 15:4). And so, when we speak, God speaks. And when God speaks, the world is made.
This is a matter for careful thought and practice. It is easy to soar to the heights and bob around up there like a shiny and useless mylar balloon. Foster's advice is, as ever, grounded.
He noticed that the disciples, who had been raised in a praying tradition, nevertheless asked Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). Jesus responded with what we call the Lord's Prayer. But that was not the only time Jesus prayed or talked about prayer.
So Foster decided, in those long-ago analog days, to cut up a Bible. (If you were raised in certain Christian traditions, this may horrify you. That is a fundamental error. The book is not what is important. The words within it are important. If you make something sacred, then you stop touching it, which defeats the point of having a book at all!)
Pasting every Gospel passage about prayer onto sheets of paper, Foster read them straight through. "I was shocked," he says. "Either the excuses and rationalizations for unanswered [intercessory] prayer I had been taught were wrong, or Jesus' words were wrong." So he read classic works on intercessory prayer and asked people who were good at it for advice. Here is a summary of what he learned about learning to pray.
First, intercessory prayer doesn't include the words "if it be Thy will" or anything like them. In fact, Foster identifies certain commands of the disciples ("In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk!") as prayers. Uncertainty, he says, is for another time. Prayers for guidance include it. So do prayers of surrender to the will of God. But intercessory prayer begins when we already know God's will. Be cautious about this! If you were raised in certain Christian traditions, you may assume that if you feel very strong emotions about something, then you know God's will about it. That is another fundamental error. We may perceive God's guidance as powerful emotions, but that does not mean that powerful emotions are God's guidance. Foster does not tell his readers to work themselves up into a fervor of emotion. His instructions for effective intercessory prayer are precise, practical, and methodical.
Second, learn by doing. "I am so grateful I did not wait until I was perfect or had everything straight before praying for others," he says, "otherwise I would never have begun."
Third, try praying for small things first. "Colds or earaches," for example. "Success in the small corners of life gives us authority in the larger matters."
Fourth, if your prayer does not work, analyze your actions--not with the intent to assign blame or shame, but to see how better to attune your will to God's will. "Listening to God is the necessary prelude to intercession." This is why Foster puts meditation before intercessory prayer in his book. Christian meditation can be a prelude, or a tune-up, for prayers for guidance, including guidance in our intercessory prayers. We can meditate on our prayers and how to make them better, or simply sit quietly with God and listen. "In times of meditation there may come a rise in the heart, a compulsion to intercede, an assurance of rightness, a flow of the Spirit." This "divine authorization...to pray for the person or situation" may also be words spoken, or an unanticipated contact from that person, or a vision. On the other hand, a negative indication--which, again, may be a feeling or words or an event or vision--means that "probably you should set it aside. God will lead someone else to pray for the matter."
Fifth, don't build up faith into an unattainable mountain in your mind. Usually, Foster says, when people talk about lack of faith, they mean lack of courage, but deciding to pray at all takes courage--and there's your faith the size of a mustard seed. But compassion, which moved Jesus and the disciples to prayer with miraculous results, is the more common failure. "It seems," he observes, "that genuine empathy between the pray-er and the pray-ee often makes the difference...[I]f we genuinely love people, we desire for them far more than it is within my power to give, and that will cause us to pray. The inner sense of compassion is one of the clearest indications from the Lord that this is a prayer project for you."
Compassion, empathy, and the willingness to let go of what we think God should want for us in order to listen for what God does want...these are seeds that grow. Practicing them makes them stronger, brings our will more closely in tune with the will of God, and makes our prayers more effective.
Next post: What intercessory prayer looks like.
Foster begins Celebration of Discipline with meditation, or learning to perceive and inhabit the entire real world. In this chapter he outlines the process of prayer as a sort of reversal-and-fulfillment of meditation: instead of learning to look beyond the immediate world of matter and time to the rest of Creation, we look the other way, from where we stand with God. "Live within me," says the Lord, "and I will live within you" (John 15:4). And so, when we speak, God speaks. And when God speaks, the world is made.
This is a matter for careful thought and practice. It is easy to soar to the heights and bob around up there like a shiny and useless mylar balloon. Foster's advice is, as ever, grounded.
He noticed that the disciples, who had been raised in a praying tradition, nevertheless asked Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). Jesus responded with what we call the Lord's Prayer. But that was not the only time Jesus prayed or talked about prayer.
So Foster decided, in those long-ago analog days, to cut up a Bible. (If you were raised in certain Christian traditions, this may horrify you. That is a fundamental error. The book is not what is important. The words within it are important. If you make something sacred, then you stop touching it, which defeats the point of having a book at all!)
Pasting every Gospel passage about prayer onto sheets of paper, Foster read them straight through. "I was shocked," he says. "Either the excuses and rationalizations for unanswered [intercessory] prayer I had been taught were wrong, or Jesus' words were wrong." So he read classic works on intercessory prayer and asked people who were good at it for advice. Here is a summary of what he learned about learning to pray.
First, intercessory prayer doesn't include the words "if it be Thy will" or anything like them. In fact, Foster identifies certain commands of the disciples ("In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk!") as prayers. Uncertainty, he says, is for another time. Prayers for guidance include it. So do prayers of surrender to the will of God. But intercessory prayer begins when we already know God's will. Be cautious about this! If you were raised in certain Christian traditions, you may assume that if you feel very strong emotions about something, then you know God's will about it. That is another fundamental error. We may perceive God's guidance as powerful emotions, but that does not mean that powerful emotions are God's guidance. Foster does not tell his readers to work themselves up into a fervor of emotion. His instructions for effective intercessory prayer are precise, practical, and methodical.
Second, learn by doing. "I am so grateful I did not wait until I was perfect or had everything straight before praying for others," he says, "otherwise I would never have begun."
Third, try praying for small things first. "Colds or earaches," for example. "Success in the small corners of life gives us authority in the larger matters."
Fourth, if your prayer does not work, analyze your actions--not with the intent to assign blame or shame, but to see how better to attune your will to God's will. "Listening to God is the necessary prelude to intercession." This is why Foster puts meditation before intercessory prayer in his book. Christian meditation can be a prelude, or a tune-up, for prayers for guidance, including guidance in our intercessory prayers. We can meditate on our prayers and how to make them better, or simply sit quietly with God and listen. "In times of meditation there may come a rise in the heart, a compulsion to intercede, an assurance of rightness, a flow of the Spirit." This "divine authorization...to pray for the person or situation" may also be words spoken, or an unanticipated contact from that person, or a vision. On the other hand, a negative indication--which, again, may be a feeling or words or an event or vision--means that "probably you should set it aside. God will lead someone else to pray for the matter."
Fifth, don't build up faith into an unattainable mountain in your mind. Usually, Foster says, when people talk about lack of faith, they mean lack of courage, but deciding to pray at all takes courage--and there's your faith the size of a mustard seed. But compassion, which moved Jesus and the disciples to prayer with miraculous results, is the more common failure. "It seems," he observes, "that genuine empathy between the pray-er and the pray-ee often makes the difference...[I]f we genuinely love people, we desire for them far more than it is within my power to give, and that will cause us to pray. The inner sense of compassion is one of the clearest indications from the Lord that this is a prayer project for you."
Compassion, empathy, and the willingness to let go of what we think God should want for us in order to listen for what God does want...these are seeds that grow. Practicing them makes them stronger, brings our will more closely in tune with the will of God, and makes our prayers more effective.
Next post: What intercessory prayer looks like.
