“Pray as you can, not as you can’t.” Dom Chapman
Beginning Where We Are
In this chapter section, Foster begins to lay out the practice (vs. concept) of Simple Prayer. And how are we to start? “Very simply, we begin right where we are: in our families, on our jobs, with our neighbors and friends….In the most natural and simple way possible we learn to pray our experiences by taking up the ordinary events of everyday life and giving them to God...and so I urge you: carry on an ongoing conversation with God about the daily stuff of life…”
One member of our study responded this way to these ideas: I used to hope one day I would have a room for prayer and Meditation. I would have plants, big pillows, soft music and an aquarium (fish are very relaxing to watch). I was going to make a cross and hang it in there—sort of my own Sanctuary. It still would be nice, but I also know I can also pray in bed, driving down the freeway, at work, in the shower. God's there all the time, all we have to do is respond. : )
Foster then says we should come to God and spill out our heart even when we are angry or disappointed with God, giving the example of Jeremiah crying out to God in complaint of how God was treating him (Jer. 20:7). Our group then talked for a good while about this concept of anger at God, and just “coming out with it” to God. One member said she really does not feel angry with God, even when things in life go awry or are very difficult; she has such solid trust in God’s love for her and God’s goodness, she does not accuse God of wrongdoing. Another shared she had many times experienced a sense of deep betrayal and anger with God, but had learned to still go to God and “talk it out”—that to come through those times, we must place ourselves before God’s presence in complete honesty, even if we have angry, hurt words and feelings (like Jeremiah did)—for, God is “waiting to meet us in the real,” as Valerie Acuff has said.
We then also discussed how this pertains to times when we are being disobedient to God—to be able to still come before God and say honestly, “I don’t feel like obeying you” or “I don’t feel like reading the Bible,” or whatever the hang-up—but to then complete that simple prayer by asking for God’s grace and help to desire to walk in step with God/walk in His ways, as Philippians 2: 13 says!
We finished our discussion of this section by sharing ideas about how simple prayer relates to Foster’s theme of prayer being about a love relationship with God. One person responded with the reminder that God loves us unconditionally, so we can (and should) come to God and tell God what's on our heart (and also listen to what His Spirit tells us in response). Another spoke of the example of long-term marriage: in that love relationship, you travel through daily life together, and if one person doesn’t share with the other, it brings separation. Sharing everything with the other person is natural, however, when love binds you together. And so it is with our relationship with God: we can view God as our beloved, and sharing the things (experiences, emotions, thoughts) of our life with God binds us together. Along with this arises the notion of trust and sense of comfort and security: in a good marriage, the partners can trust one another and have a sense of security and confidence that the other person also loves them and takes an interest in them (i.e., each person wants to know “what is going on” with the other, how the other is doing, etc.)—and so it is with God as our “Heavenly Spouse” (see for ex. Isaiah 54:5; Revelation 19:7 re: God as Spouse/Husband).
So, let us begin in prayer “where we are,” knowing we are held in the unconditional Love of the Creator~
“Dear Jesus, how desperately I need to learn to pray. And yet when I am honest, I know that I often do not even want to pray.
I am distracted!
I am stubborn!
I am self-centered!
In your mercy, Jesus, bring my ‘want-er’ more in line with my ‘need-er’ so that I can come to want what I need.
In your name and for your sake, I pray. –Amen”
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