Pray '10

So, 2010 at Grace Church will be a Year of Prayer. That’s exciting! I think that the church, especially in America, doesn’t pray as it should. In fact, I wonder if we even really know what prayer is.

Can you recall a time in your life when prayer was something that you did ritualistically? If someone asked you if you pray, you would say “Sure!” But, if they asked you when you pray, you’d find that it happened before your meals, especially dinner, maybe the others too but probably not snacks. Maybe you also prayed before going to sleep at night. Maybe your nighttime prayers even put you to sleep. I’ve even found myself saying, “Well, it’s morning and that’s the time I’ve set aside to pray so here it goes…”

How about the content of your prayers? Are they a list of things you need or want changed by God? Maybe your prayer life looked very little like the Christian view of prayer and more like the Muslim story of Aladdin and his magic lamp. If you need something, rub the lamp and ask the djinni to grant your wish. Maybe you have moved beyond that phase of prayer and now have a swell acrostic to help you to remember steps of prayer, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.

Probably one of the things that I appreciate the most about 2010 being the Year of Prayer at Grace Church is that it has forced me to go back and consider what prayer is. And, if I consider what prayer is, maybe, just maybe I’ll find that I’ll begin to do it more often, even “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and that my prayers will be radically different. And how might I be changed through that process?

My prayer for all of us is that God would use 2010 to Move us all closer to where He wants us to be.

More in the weeks to come…