Reflections from the 24/7 Prayer Course
As we draw near to the end of this term of Life Group, I think that it is the perfect time to reflect on Pete Grieg’s prayer course and those aspects of the course that particularly resonated with me. In this blog post, I have reviewed and explored the content of each of the sessions; detailing the content which I found to be helpful, areas in which I was challenged and those aspects of my prayer life that I still need to focus on.
Having attended a Catholic school as both a pupil and in the beginning stages of my teaching career, I was very familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, as I probably recited it thousands of times in my life during morning line-ups and Friday Mass. However, I was not aware of the depth and yet simplicity of this beautiful prayer, and how the structure thereof provides a framework for us to deepen our understanding of prayer. Furthermore, in writing this post it has been fascinating to reflect on how poignant much of the content of the prayer course was during lockdown, but also in the formative stages of a number of new Life Groups across Kings Church.
For the first session, the mantra of: Keep it Simple; Keep it Real; Keep it up, was most helpful and established a sense of ‘this is going to be achievable’. Personally, in my walk with God I have struggled with prayer, particularly as I can hold myself to unrealistic standards of trying to say the right thing, at the right time. The first session stressed the importance of having a prayer life which is simple and perhaps, at times, even just a conversation with the Lord. That’s something I can definitely do!
Prior to the course my default position in prayer was to petition God for my wants and needs (I am sure I am not alone here). Therefore, the second session on Adoration was provocative and deeply encouraging. It was a call to begin our prayer with a time of worship as we seek to develop a prayer life that Pete described as ‘relational, not transactional’. The acronym of P.R.A.Y was used: Pause, Rejoice, Ask, Yield. As someone who thrives on routine, this was most helpful in providing a structure on which to begin building a meaningful prayer life.
I have since endeavoured to actively make adoration more a part of my prayer life as I have tried to stick to the Keep it Simple mantra. The way we worship God can manifest itself in many ways, and as a group we discussed how God can be worshipped at all times, throughout the day. Whether it is in acknowledging creation or being thankful for a fruitful conversation with a colleague, this session highlighted the importance of consciously being thankful in God’s presence, consistently.
As mentioned above, I have tended to default to either petitioning God or asking him to intercede in circumstances in my life. Up until very recently, these have formed the sole foundations of my prayer life. Of course, these are inherently good things and I am grateful that God does want us to bring our needs and wants to Him. This is powerfully evident in Matthew 7:7-8 as Jesus says: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Returning to the P.R.A.Y acronym, it is helpful to note the order of where Asking (petitioning and intercession) comes in relation to Pausing, Rejoicing and Yielding. Now obviously, these are not hard and fast rules and I don’t think that Pete Grieg’s intention is in anyway to be legalistic about this; however, returning to the Lord’s Prayer in both Matthew and Luke’s Gospel, Jesus does encourage us to pray by first adoring and then asking.
I think the power of both petition and intercession is in the asking and articulating. Spending time to bring our desires and concerns to God, despite His full awareness thereof (Matthew 6:8 – ‘…for your Father knows that you need before you ask him’), helps us to fully realise a relational prayer life. Furthermore, I think that from a psychological perspective, it helps us to frame our thoughts in a meaningful way in which we are vulnerable before God. At the end of the day, it may simply be that we needed to bring whatever was concerning us to Him, and that is enough.
As a Life Group, we have spoken at length about vulnerability and accountability. The former has been something that we have been acutely aware of developing, particularly as we are a relatively new (multiplied) group and for most people it inevitably takes time to open up. Obviously, the challenges of lockdown further highlighted the need to create a space in which our Life Group members could share openly about how they have handled this challenging period.
I believe that the prayer course allowed us to begin to open up in ways that perhaps would not have been possible. During the fifth session on unanswered prayer, we encouraged vulnerability as each of us opened up about those prayers in our lives in which there has been seemingly little breakthrough; some of which were prayers that have been prayed for decades! We prayed into those areas publicly, asking God to intervene in His time and to help us understand His plan in these sensitive areas of our lives. I can honestly say that this was a pivotal point for us as a group and one which has been discussed subsequently in numerous sessions, even after the conclusion of the prayer course. It has set us on an honest trajectory of continuing to develop a group which is open, challenging, supportive and holds us to account. At the end of the day, this is something I think we all desire.
It was interesting, that despite Pausing being the first part of the process (when adhering to the P.R.A.Y acronym), the session on contemplation and meditation was one of the last of the course. Personally, the three most difficult and challenging topics of the course comprised of the last three sessions – contemplation, listening and spiritual warfare.
With regards to contemplation, I think I can say with a degree of confidence that many of us experience difficulty in simply being still and silent, particularly in the age of distraction when pausing is seemingly counter-intuitive to the prevailing culture. Yet, this is such a fundamental part of a meaningful prayer life and I think it is no coincidence that in secular society there have been profound calls for people to practise mindfulness and meditation as levels of anxiety and depression have sky-rocketed, particularly in the developed world. At the time of doing this session, a number of members of the group were also reading The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. If you haven’t read it, I would definitely recommend it as I think the themes sit well alongside the content of the prayer course. It has since become somewhat of a Life Group joke that whenever someone mentions difficulties related to time management and distraction, someone (mostly me!) pipes up: ‘I know just the book for you…’
In the penultimate session on listening, Pete Grieg was particularly encouraging in saying that it is fine to hear God differently, depending on how He has made you. I think that for many of us, anxiety can creep in when we feel that we do not hear from God. For most of my fairly short walk with God, much of my doubts have crept in as I think I was longing for a transcendent moment of an audible, booming voice from God declaring His presence. As someone who likes to follow the evidence and approach things in a logically consistent way, God’s silence has been hard for me to comprehend at times. However, I think my concerns were perhaps down to a lack of understanding of what it means to listen. What I elicited from this session was that listening is not merely a passive process of waiting on God to speak (although this can happen). Instead, it is an active process of engagement with His word and in regular prayer. We should ‘Slow Down and Soften Up’ taking practical steps to allow God to speak to us and soften our hearts to hear him. Whilst this is a helpful analogy, for me, it was the practical application of utilising the Lectio Divina – read it; explore it; pray and respond; rest in God’s word – that served as a starting point to be a better listener. As I write this, I am holding myself to account as I acknowledge that this is an area in which I have still not spent enough time (perhaps I’m yet to be successful in ruthlessly eliminating hurry from my life).
The final session covered the fact that the Bible is explicit about Christians facing spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:11). This is not an area in which I have much experience and I remember feeling a sense of detachment and uncertainty about the theology of spiritual warfare. In writing this, I suppose if I am truly honest, I have many examples of the battle of good and evil over my heart and head throughout my life. In tending to be double-minded, I think I have always known that I need to surrender these matters of my head and heart to a ‘higher power’ and to “…put on the full armour of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17). The session encouraged as us a community of believers to actively pray for God’s kingdom to come and for us to ultimately be delivered from evil.
In closing, I think it is helpful to return to the mantra with which Pete Grieg started the prayer course – Keep it Simple; Keep it Real; Keep it Up. I am encouraged, and challenged, to continue developing a prayer life that fosters a deeper relationship with God. Please ask me how I am getting on with this the next time you see me.