Visual aids to prayer

Many years ago, I learned a valuable lesson  - the world around you can help you pray.

I remember Rosemary Green, wife of Anglican theologian Michael Green, asking those of us attending a prayer seminar to pick an object - any object - and use it to stimulate our prayers.  I remember choosing my watch and being surprised by how it caused me to think about God.

I often indulge in this prayer aid when I go for a walk.  For instance, yesterday I noted the white snow and thought of Christ's death to cleanse me from sin.  I thanked him for that.  A little further on, I saw a tree that was bare of leaves and reflected that sometimes God has to strip me of wrong things in order to encourage new growth spiritually.

Often, that leads me into other prayer paths.  And God will use these things to speak to me, giving me answers to problems that have been troubling me.

When you think of it, this is a very old practice.

The psalmist David's imagination was filled with pictures of the world around him.  It poured out into his songs to God.

Take the famous twenty-third psalm.

David was a shepherd before he was a king.  Clearly, the simple everyday image of a shepherd with his sheep caused him to think of God as he wrote this psalm.

As a shepherd, he had taken his sheep to water and good pasture.  He had defended them against marauding beasts.

Recalling this, he burst into a song of praise to God.  God was his shepherd.   He protected David.  He provided David with all he needed.  He took him through dark valleys where his life was threatened just as David's sheep had been stalked by wild beasts.

It is a delightful - and refreshing - way to pray.

Praying in God's presence

It's easy to fall into rote prayer - rattling off words without thinking.

I confess I usually do when I'm saying grace.

Francis Chan, a very engaging speaker and author of Crazy Love, touches on this in a short video which I'm attaching to this post below.  He tells how he used the same words throughout his childhood and teen years while saying grace at the family table.

This rote praying spilled over into other areas of his prayer life.  It wasn't until adulthood that his prayer life changed.  He started praying as if he was in God's presence.

It seems so obvious.  Jesus said he would always be with us.  So of course, God is present when we pray.

But often we pray as if we are talking to a blank wall.  And our hearts are not in our prayers.

Francis Chan's imagination was fired by the picture of God on his throne in Revelation 4.  He began to pray as if he were speaking to God on his throne.  His prayer life gained new vigour and meaning.  He was talking to a God of power and might.

The writer of Hebrews touches on this picture of the throne of God in Hebrews chapter 4.  He says that Jesus understands us because he faced all the trials and temptations we have on earth.  Now, he is our high priest intervening for us before God the Father.  He concludes:

"So let us come boldly before the throne of our gracious God.  There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

I love that image.  The God of Revelation 4 is also the God of Hebrews 4.  He is a God of power and might and he is a God of mercy.

When we open our eyes to God's presence, we pray with more intensity and confidence.

He really does listen.  He is sympathetic to our struggles.  He wants to pour out his grace on our needy hearts.

Does prayer work?

The Bible says that prayer matters.

But many Christians have doubts.  I admit I sometimes wonder.

Why do we doubt?

I believe it is because we don't see how God is answering our prayers.  We feel prayer doesn't work.  And we give up.

We're like the soldier under attack in the trenches.  The situation looks desperate in the soldier's eyes.  He feels the battle is lost.

But God is like the general who is receiving information from the battlefield and from aerial surveillance.  He knows the battle is won.

I often think of God's words in Isaiah 58: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

It all comes back to trust.  Am I willing to trust God even when I don't understand?

I realize now that many of the things I have prayed for over the years have been answered with a resounding "Yes."  Only, I didn't know it at the time.  And sometimes I even thought he was saying "No."

I am still blind to much of what God is doing in my life.  But I am learning that God is at work in every aspect of my life - from the smallest, everyday details to the big picture.

That doesn't mean that God will always give me what I want.  He will give me what he knows I need.

And perhaps some of his answers will come when I am long gone.  Here is pastor Robert Morris speaking about my great prayer hero George Muller and the friend he prayed for all his life.

God's face, not his hand

Daniel Henderson has coined a phrase that captures an important truth: "Seek God's face before you seek his hand."

Speaking for myself, I am inclined to rush to God with requests.  I'm in a hurry to get what I want - sometimes telling myself that God wants what I want.

But Henderson, who has written books on worship-based prayer, says that our relationship with God will change dramatically if we turn our attention to him first.

In essence, he is saying that "seeking God's face" means loving and worshiping God and getting to know him in an ever-deeper way.  "Seeking God's hand" is all about asking him for whatever goodies we want at the moment.

There is nothing wrong with asking God for something.  That is an important part of prayer.  But Henderson and other authors say that we 21st century Christians need to change our focus.  We need to fix our eyes on Jesus.

The psalmist David makes this point in Psalm 27:4: "One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple."

Gazing upon God may seem like a waste of time to us in our high-speed world.  This attitude even infects our activities as believers.  In the back of our minds, we feel the work of the church will never get done if we spend time contemplating and worshiping God.

But Henderson says that worship-based prayer transformed churches he led in California and Minnesota.  Group prayer suddenly became life-changing for people who participated and his church in Sacramento, California almost doubled in a few years.  That church then planted several daughter churches.

It's hard to sit still and worship God when deadlines are just around the corner.  But many great Christians have done just that.

Cultivating a strong relationship with God through prayer and reflective reading of the Bible was a hallmark of George Muller's very busy life starting and running several orphanages in Britain in the 19th century.  He did not make any major decision until he was absolutely certain God wanted him to do it.

In his books, Henderson urges his readers to take scripture passages and use them as prompts for worshiping God for who he is.  As we worship, our minds rise above our circumstances and we are able to pray for our concerns with greater understanding and hope.

If our hearts are in tune with God, we are more likely to see God at work.