I’m always glad to get more help for my prayer life. A glance at the downloads on my Kindle or at the most-thumbed books on my shelf would show my efforts to grow in prayer, to do something that is so simple and yet can seem so hard. Even the most familiar thoughts on prayer can yield new insights. Here are three that come from Jesus. You know them already. But then, look again.
1) “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Those timeless words from the Lord’s Prayer fall from our lips so easily. I think I know what they mean, but do I?
Give us, all of us, not just me in my well-stocked kitchen in New York City but the subsistence farmer in Africa and the computer programmer in Asia and the homeless guy on the streets in Seattle, we all need to eat. God knows it, God hears it.
But the part of the prayer that delights me–and challenges me–is in the repetition of “day” and “daily.” Don’t I waste too much of my prayer time on worries about tomorrow or regrets about yesterday? Jesus is telling me, “Stop, let that go. All you need is God’s presence today.”
2) “When you have done it for the least of these, you have done it for me.”
You remember this story that Jesus tells of the king separating the sheep from the goats, the good from the bad, and those who receive his admonition are the ones who fed the hungry, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, visited the imprisoned. “What you have done for the least of these, you have done for me,” he says.
Maybe the prayer part of this isn’t apparent, but I think it’s there. Jesus is telling us where we can find him. He is in others. He is in those who need our help, the least of these. I like making this part of my prayer practice, looking for Jesus in others, looking in the least likely places and the least likely people.
Jesus doesn’t have to be far away.
3) “Jesus would withdraw to deserted places for prayer.”
When the subject of prayer comes up I like to ask, “Do you have a regular time to pray?” or “Do you have a favorite place to pray?” There are many wonderful answers, but the one that always gives me pause is, “Oh, no, I pray all the time, wherever I am.”
It sounds like a good answer. After all, to pray without ceasing is a goal for all. But there is a lot of spiritual value to getting away–even if it’s just a chair in the corner of your bedroom–to pray. Surely Jesus could get his Father’s attention any time he liked, in the middle of any busy day, healing, teaching, blessing. If he felt the need to withdraw to deserted places to pray, shouldn’t I?
My deserted place these days happens to be the sofa in the TV room (with the TV off). The only one who pays any attention to me there is my cat. I listen quietly, eyes closed, for and to God.
