Category: Learning to Pray

God Wants to Talk to You: a ★★★★★ book review.

His sheep know his voice. John 10:4 tells us that; yet many of us struggle to discern God’s voice in the midst of daily life. Samuel Williamson, founding director of Beliefs of the Heart, has written a helpful guide to hearing God’s voice everywhere.Hearing God in Conversation: How to Recognize His Voice Everywhere helps us cultivate our curiosity and attention to the ways in which God speaks to us.
Williamson begins with a story of hearing God’s voice when he was just a 9780825444241ten-year-old, newly minted atheist. When God didn’t strike down his girlfriend Diane for cussing, Williamson lost  his faith. So he started his own experiment with profanity and living like God wasn’t there. God simply said, “Sam, I’m real, and you don’t understand” (24). Williamson was brought back to faith.  While this experience is unique to him, Williamson believes we all have a capacity to hear God’s voice. He relates the various ways people hear God. In his second chapter Williamson argues that the point of God speaking is less about directions from on high (though He is still God) and more about conversation. God wants to connect and commune with us. Williamson uses the analogy of learning sailing from his dad and the casual conversations that would spring up organically as a result (35-36).

But Williamson is also an evangelical. He gives pride of place to the Bible. Williamson wants us to read our Bibles, but not as a maintenance manual or a rule book but as an opportunity to encounter the living God. We read to commune with the living God. So he offers scriptural meditation (focusing on the one book where God clearly spoke) as a way to train ourselves to hear God’s voice, “The best way to  become familar with God’s voice is to meditate on his Word, just as the best way to spot a counterfeit is to spend lots of time with the real thing” (61).

Along the way Williamson has lots of practical advice for listening prayer: how to recognize God, how to hear God’s voice for others,  hearing God’s voice in the silence, and detours of life, the place of emotions, etc. Williamson opens up about his own journey of God. He shares childhood stories of learning to hear God’s voice,  awkward words that God gave him for others (or about others),  and his process of discerning God’s call to leave a stable career with a software company to pursue full time ministry. He suggests brainstorming with God (journaling) and listening to ‘God’s questions’ in the Bible as ways to press into a deeper relationship with God.

What distinguishes Williamson’s book from some treatments of listening prayer is how down-to-earth he is. He shares stories and anecdotes with good humor (occasionally this is a bit distracting).  Two appendixes address the arguments against listening prayer by some conservative evangelicals and those ‘questionable and excessive practices.’ There are other good books on this theme (notably, Joyce Huggett’s Listening to God and Brad Jersak’s Can You Hear Me?, Dallas Willard’s Hearing God). Williamson own influences in writing include Oswald Chambers, C.S. Lewis, Dallas Willard and Tim Keller (22). He makes a strong and helpful contribution to the topic of hearing God. The best thing I can say about a book on prayer is that it makes me want to pray. This book certainly makes want to do that.

Five stars. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Note: I received this book from Kregel Publications in exchange for my honest review

Prayer: Confession I

Bringing Confession Home

My life is displayed when You drop by:

our shoes piled haphazard at the door, kids’ toys

and clothes on the floor, the paper unread but

spread across the coffee table, the shelves teem with debris,

and countertops covered with dishes—my sink overflows.

 

We are past pretense, You and I;

You know who I am, not what I pretend.

My detritus divulges an inner chaos—

a cluttered heart, a spirit stifled by stuff.

Gather these fragments and see

all I love and I long to be.

 

Create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit in me.

So when You come to my door and knock

I may welcome You in without shame.

 

 

*Dirty dish picture from Wikimedia Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Dirty_dishes.jpg

 

The Spirit and ‘the Letter’ of Prayer: a book review

About a week-and-a-half ago, I received a copy of Letters to Jacob: Mostly on Contemplative Prayer in the mail. It was a short book, only ninety pages(more booklet than book). I thought I would breeze through the book, but that isn’t what happened. I’ve been busy and this short book beckoned me to slow down. I read several of these letters through several times. I mulled over them and their implications. The author, Father John-Julian, is a hermit of the Order of Julian of Norwich (OJN). He shares his insights into prayer, contemplation and ascetical theology.

letters-to-jacob-mostly-about-contemplative-prayer-epub-version-4The title riffs off C.S. Lewis’s classic work Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on  Prayer.  The book began as a set of thirteen letters to a young seminarian who was new to ascetical theology and interested in the practice of contemplative prayer (89). The letters went through several revisions and were passed around to other seminarians and even used as a textbook for ascetical theology. This is first time these letters have been formally published and the number of letters has swelled from thirteen to twenty-two. I am uncertain if the letters’ original recipient was named Jacob or if the name alludes the biblical patriarch famous for his wrestling with God.

Father John-Julian’s focus is on contemplative prayer, or what he calls ‘still prayer.’ He writes:

[T]he still prayer I have called mediation is in its simplest form an attempt to make oneself accessible to God—willing to hear what God may convey, or act as God might direct. In other words, meditation really means waiting upon God—open, vulnerable, focused, susceptible, listening and ready. In meditation one tries to be passive and willing to be communicated with. It is the great pinnacle of spiritual life and devout experience (82-83).

Father John-Julian favors the contemplative tradition; however he also describes the proper orientation to prayer in general. Prayer is not about getting God to do what you want (for yourself or someone else) but an orientation toward relationship with the Divine (7-8).  Fr. John-Julian warns against praying for particular outcomes and instead advises  us to pray that we may recognize the will of God (11). Without prescribing a ‘prayer method.’ John-Julian orients us towards communion with the God that is beyond our comprehension.

Along the way, John Julian identifies the various ‘veils’ which impede the development of still prayer. These include:our emotions, boredom, our frenetic activity, expectations, obscurity which sees God as ‘extrinsic to us,’ methodology, ignorance, consciousness of sin, romance, the mistaken notion of spiritual privacy, projection, an over-literalness,  and a desire for practicality. John-Julian draws heavily on Julian of Norwich (for which his order is named), and the English Mystical tradition (i.e. The Cloud of Unknowing) He is gently critical of charismatic, and evangelical traditions that are overly pragmatic and individualistic.

There is a lot of wisdom in this book and certainly Fr. John-Julian names the heart of true prayer—unity with God. I found this book challenging and underlined a number of passages. As an admittedly low-church evangelical, I am implicated in many of his critiques. There are certainly times where I have been more “results-driven” in prayer than I have been trying to commune with God. I also am some one who is inspired by the contemplative tradition but find it temperamentally difficult (I’m a hyper-extrovert). However in both cases I find myself challenged and drawn into the greater depth of true prayer through these letters.

I recommend this book for those who desire to grow in their prayer life (if there is no desire, you probably aren’t ready for this). Father John-Julian is a wise guide, and I find this short book one of the best contemporary summaries of contemplative prayer. I give this book four-and-a-half stars.

Note: I received this book from Paraclete Press in exchange for my honest review

 

Good News Lent: Wilderness Introduction

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. Mark 1:12-13

Are you in a wilderness? It could be one of your own making—sin and shame isolating you from others. It could be a wilderness hoist on you through circumstance: the death of a loved one, a broken relationship, a debilitating illness, the loss of a job. Maybe you went to what you thought was the land of promise, and found yourself in a  barren wasteland. However, you got here, you are not alone. Jesus also walked in the wilderness. For forty days he was tempted by the devil.

Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the wilderness is a poignant image for Lent. It is this episode from Jesus’ life that the church got the ‘forty days’ that determine the length of the season. Forty days Jesus fasted, so we fast forty days (minus Sundays). There Jesus was victor over temptation, so we take this time to pursue holiness, attentive to our proclivity toward sin. Yes, Jesus’ wilderness experience is foundational for our experience of Lent. But does the wilderness hold good news for us? Jesus faced the devil in the dry arid air of the desert. He did so, for the joy set before him. I see five reasons the wilderness was good news for Jesus, and is good news for us!

The Wilderness is Where God Wanted Jesus to Be

judean_wildernessWe are told in Mark’s gospel that the Spirit “sent” Jesus into the wilderness.   Jesus emerged from the Jordan, dripping wet from his baptism and the Spirit sent him to the desert. The NIV’s ‘sent’ is a rather tepid translation of the Greek ἐκβάλλει. The word carries the force of ‘drove out’ or ‘expelled.’ Jesus was forced out to the wilderness, there by the Spirit’s compulsion. He was in the wilderness because God wanted Him there.  Why did the Spirit want Jesus there? Matthew gives the reason, “He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by devil” (Matt. 4:1).

There was contest that needed to happen between Jesus and Satan at the outset of his ministry. The ultimate contest would come later, but this wilderness time was important. Jesus had heard his Father’s voice, saw the heavens open and felt the Spirit’s presence resting like a cooing dove on Him. He couldn’t go back to carpentry; his Kingdom mission was inaugurated. God sent him to the wilderness, but he didn’t expect him to stay there.  He went to quote Deuteronomy at the Devil and strengthen his resolve to face what lay ahead

Spiritually the wilderness is a liminal space, it is a place between places. Jesus was stepping out of the life as an obscure Galilean carpenter, to a lifestyle which included itinerant evangelism, divine healing and political rabble-rousing. This was a big change in Jesus’ life, even for the Son of God. The desert gave Jesus the space a place to transition.

Where does God have you? If you are in a wilderness right now, perhaps the Spirit has driven you there because He is transitioning you to something new, something significant. This is a time to pay attention and ask God what He is doing?

 

The Wilderness Clarifies Identity and Allowed Jesus Space to Connect to God

 

God took Jesus to the wilderness after affirming him in baptism. Jonathan Martin writes:

[T]he reason that God sent Jesus into the wilderness was not to weaken Him­—so that his showdown with Satan would become “the ultimate test”—but rather to strengthen Him and cement in His heart the truth of His identity. Fresh from hearing the words of confirmation on which His entire life and ministry would be built, there was no safer place than the wilderness for Jesus to go next. Even though His experience in the wilderness wasn’t easy—He fasted for forty days and forty nights and was confronted by the devil—the devil wasn’t the only one he encountered there. The Spirit sent Jesus into the wilderness, rejuvenated with the affirmation of His identity in God’s eyes, and allowed Him to step away from His day-to-day life until the noise ad hurry of the world around Him was stripped down to the point where He could easily distinguish the voice of the accuser from the voice of the Father. The same can be true for us. [1]

Belden Lane says, “Desert and mountain places, located on the margins of society are locations of choice in luring God’s people to a deeper understanding of who they are. Yahweh frequently moves to the boundary in order to restore the center, calling a broken people back to justice and compassion.”[2] As with Jesus, so with us. We move (or are moved) into wilderness spaces to discover who we really are. It wasn’t enough that Jesus heard the Father affirm Him in baptism. He needed space to clarify what those words meant—to be moved by the Spirit, to connect with Father. He needed time out of the limelight to clarify His identity, and to hear God’s voice.

You are a child of God! The Father declares His love for you, the Spirit of God rests on all who are His. We need this space to understand what it means that we are His. We need to ‘unplug’ and take time in obscurity to cement this and to learn to discern the voice of God for us.

The Wilderness is a Place of Preparation

When Jesus left the wilderness, his public ministry would begin. It would culminate on a Roman cross. Along the way he would cast out demons, heal the sick, announce good news, and challenge the religious and political structures.  He would gather a handful of followers that he would pour his life into, so that they would lead the movement in his absence. There was a lot of work to be done and it would take all of him.  Jesus spent forty days fasting and praying at the outset of his ministry.  This time in the wilderness was preparation for what lay ahead.  These wilderness spaces are our preparatory school as well.  As the desert clarifies our identity—we see ourselves in all our vulnerability, weakness, brokenness and wonder—we sense God’s call to step out in compassion for the world. The obscurity of the margins is where God prepares us for the work ahead.

Do you know what God is Calling You to? Do you have a sense of the type of work he would like to do through you? How are you being prepared for that task? Our wilderness is where we discern God’s call and gain the courage to step into it.

 

The Wilderness is a Place of Purgation

The wilderness is where Jesus is tempted by the devil (Jesus’ temptation is the subject of my next post).  This is also the space where we face those ugly bits in ourselves. The Christian tradition calls this purgation—a purification of the soul from sin. Jesus was the sinless Son of God, but even he faced temptation. The wilderness is the space where we can wrestle our demons all the way down.  We all have comforts and strategies we employ that we use which prevent us from examining our heart’s condition: we use the demands of work and commitments to crowd out self-reflection; we fill our down time with Netflix binge watches of our favorite series; we fill our bellies with a tub of cookie dough ice cream or engage in some retail therapy. We are good at distracting ourselves with work, food, and entertainment. Perhaps we self-medicate with drugs or alcohol. When all these are stripped away through fasting or circumstance, we begin to see ourselves for who we are and to deal with the parts of our soul we work so hard at avoiding.   Lane writes:

The way of purgation involves an entry into what is unnerving, even grotesque in our lives, into what quickly reveals our limits. It seems at first, like most beginnings in the spiritual life, a mistake, a false start, an imperfection in God’s planning, a regression in our own growth. Only in hindsight do we recognize it for the unexpected gift that it is.[3]

The good news of the desert is that as our defenses are stripped away and our sin is laid bare before God, He transforms us. When we emerge from this marginal, liminal space, we are made new. The wilderness is a hard place to be, but it is where God has his way in us.

The Wilderness is Where Jesus ‘Back-stories’ the Good News.

The good news about Jesus is made coherent as part of the larger story of God and Israel’s story.  N.T. Wright’s project has been to show how Jesus fulfills Israel’s messianic hopes.  Jesus does this in two ways: he recapitulates Israel and its sacred symbols around himself and he does the sort of things the Hebrew Scriptures attest that only God can do.  The Hebrew Scriptures, what Christian’s call the Old Testament, provides the backstory essential for understanding who Jesus is and why he came. When we look again at Jesus wilderness wandering, we see God reenacting Israel’s own wandering. The people of Israel went through the Red Sea and spent forty years in the wilderness; Jesus left the Jordan for forty days in the wilderness. Israel was led by God’s presence in a pillar of fire by day and a cloud by night (Exodus 13:21); Jesus was compelled forward by the Spirit. Israel was tested for forty years (Deuteronomy 8:2); Jesus was tempted by the devil. But while Israel grumbled, complained, and failed their wilderness tests, Jesus would emerge victorious.  Jesus’ reenactment showed him to be the New Israel, fulfilling covenant with God, walking faithfully with him.

Something new was happening in the Judean countryside. A Messiah was coming that would fulfill all of Israel’s hopes and longing. A man would stumble out of the desert that would embody everything Israel was supposed to be.

Jesus came. He suffered the wilderness, he overcame the time of testing and he would lead his people to the good land. Praise God that Jesus came to be what we could not be for ourselves. Thank you Jesus for going before us, marking the way through the wilderness and showing us the way forward as we trust in him.

 

Whatever your wilderness is, press into it. Jesus walked this road and there are good things in store.  God will take this time to show you who you are, to help you see clearly who He is, to guide you, to show you the way forward, to prepare you, to cleanse your heart of Sin.  The desert is harsh landscape, and these are difficult days. There are gifts here too.

[Note: I previous edition of this page, titled it “Wilderness Part I.” However I decided to break Jesus’ Temptations into several posts, and treat this an introductory post].

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Jonathan Martin, Prototype: What Happens When You Discover You Are More Like Jesus Than You Think. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2013), 51.

[2] Belden Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscape: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 46.

[3] Lane, 27.

The Sour-Faced Evangelists of Lent?

It is Ash Wednesday. Today many us will attend a service to receive the imposition of ashes–a dark smudge across our foreheads. This is just the first thing imposed on us in Lent, a season of self-imposed discipline. We give up chocolate, meat, coffee, alcohol, smoking–or anything that makes us happy.  Jesus suffered in the wilderness and on his long, winding road to Calvary. The Church has deemed that appropriately, we should suffer too. We wander through today our faces marked with soot and scowls. Fasting makes us hangry. Our head throbs from caffeine withdrawal. We snap at others because all our go-to-coping mechanisms are declared off limits.

Is this what Lent is about? Here are excerpts for the top three Google hits answering the question, “What is Lent?”:

What is Lent? Lent is a season of the Christian Year where Christians focus on simple living, prayer, and fasting in order to grow closer to God. (from UpperRoom.org -Lent 101)

Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. Lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, which means “spring.” The forty days represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, enduring the temptation of Satan and preparing to begin his ministry. (from umc.org- “What is Lent and Why does it Last Forty Days?”)

Lent is a period of fasting, moderation, and self-denial traditionally observed by Catholics and some Protestant denominations. It begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter Sunday. The length of the Lenten fast was established in the 4th century as 46 days (40 days, not counting Sundays). During Lent, participants eat sparingly or give up a particular food or habit. It’s not uncommon for people to give up smoking during Lent, or to swear off watching television or eating candy or telling lies. It’s six weeks of self-discipline. ( from gotquestions.org – “What is the meaning of Lent?)

These definitions augment one another. Lent is a season of self-denial leading up Easter for the purpose of our growing close to God.  Lent is one of the two great preparatory seasons of the church. But whereas Advent is full of announcement of the in-breaking of the Kingdom, Lent reminds us that on Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem  suffering and death await.

I am guided by the conviction that Christianity is Good News.  Christians are God’s Good News People.  We believe that this good news culminates at Calvary where Jesus set us free from sin, death and spiritual oppression. This isn’t just a season of self-imposed suffering, self denial and sour-faces. Here we mark Christ’s confrontation and ultimate victory over the Powers.

So we can take up our cross and follow Jesus because this isn’t just a death march. Jesus wins and on his way to be crucified, he exposes the lies that propped up the political and religious hegemony of his day. Jesus died for us so that we would die to ourselves and rise again with our life in him.  We participate in Lent because we know despite the hard road Jesus walked, the brokenness and violence he suffered, he would bring wholeness and shalom to all who trust in him.

Give up coffee. Give up meat. Give up pleasure and lay aside vice. But don’t do it with a sour face. Don’t do it with the shallow hope of becoming a better you. Do so in the strong confidence that Jesus suffered every shame, every pain, every hurt at Calvary because he had something better for you–abundant life, peace with God, reconciliation and justice for all. Fasting is an appropriate response both to prepare and to mark the sacred moment of what Jesus may be doing in you. He didn’t avoid pain, we shouldn’t either. But in the midst of sorrow we have joy because our salvation awaits.

Jesus is on the road, his face like a flint toward Jerusalem. Whatever holds you in bondage Christ has come to set you free. This is good news.

a-23e

An Inner Step Toward God: a book review and GIVEAWAY!!!

Alexander Men was a popular Russian Orthodox priest during the final decades of the USSR. Through much of his ministry career, his writings were suppressed. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when the nation had a new experience of religious Freedom, Men was vocal in his proclamation of the gospel. Before the Soviet’s ultimate collapse, Men was murdered. Many regard him as a martyr.

During his life time, his books on Orthodoxy and the spiritual life were circulated in a clandestine manner–published under pseudonyms and passed out as carbon-copied manuscripts (or published abroad and smuggled back into the country). But because Men wrote in Russian, much of his writings remain unknown in the English speaking world. Editor April French and translator Christa Belyaeva have compiled many of Men’s works into a slim volume, An Inner Step Toward God. Readers will be treated to Men’s practical  insights on the nature of prayer and its practice in the Russian Orthodox tradition.

There are four sections of this book.  Part one records parts of two lectures: an informal one delivered in a parishioner’s house, and a formal lecture delivered in February, 1990 (months before his murder). Part two reproduces A Practical Guide to Prayer, a catechetical work utilized by small groups of Men’s congregants to deepen their prayer lives. Part three focuses on prayer and the Great Lent.  There is a chapter where Men describes the Prayer of St. Ephrem of Syria (a prayer sent daily through Lent by Orthodox Christians) and devotional instructions for this season. Part four has sermon selections from Men on various saints,  his public prayers and further selections from his sermons and lectures on prayer.  In addition to these sections, there are appendices which record  insights from Men and other Orthodox Christians on the life of prayer.

As a lowly Protestant, I often turn to the writings of the Christian east and find wells of deep insight. Writers like Kallistos Ware, John Zizioulas, Anthony Bloom, Paul of Finland and Alexander Schmemann have shaped my theology,  my love of the sacraments and appreciation for liturgy. I remain firm in my non-Orthodoxy but these authors help me see the wisdom and depths of the Great Tradition.  Men is a devout and insightful Orthodox author and I am grateful for discovering him through this gem of a book.

Men saw prayer as a means of cultivating an awareness of God’s presence throughout life and allowing God to transform us:

So let us pray that we may know He is with us right now.  The Word of God will be with us. We will take Him home, and He will live in us. And Finally, let us live in the light and in hope.  We believers are happy people who do not take advantage of happiness; we are rich people who neither take possession of nor utilize our treasure. Therefore, today we will wash away everything–our resentments, our disappointments, our worries and expectations, our sin and our burdens. We bring these things to the Lord so that He might strengthen us, for this is what is most important (18).

Men talks about breathing, prayer postures, managing distractions and ‘higher forms of prayer’ (i.e. cultivating an inner awareness of God through all of life). However his method of prayer is relatively simple: daily prayer with a prayer book, time reading and meditating on Holy Scripture, and the Eucharist.  Orthodox prayer practice consists of saying set prayers (i.e. rote prayers from a prayer book or the Jesus prayer) as a means of attuning your heart to God. Men argues that these forms of prayers awaken us to God’s presence, and work on us regardless of whether or not we ‘feel like praying or not.’ To say the words from a prayer book, day in and day out is formational.  I find myself challenged and inspired by Men’s prescription for daily regular prayer.

This book provided strategies for deepening my personal prayer life and introduced me to voice of someone outside of my own tradition. I am grateful for Men’s life and witness and to April French and Paraclete press for introducing me to him!

GIVE AWAY!!!

Paraclete Press was gracious enough to share a review copy with me. That means that in addition to the one I purchased, I have an extra copy to share with one of you. If you would like to win my copy, please comment below telling me how you practice (or don’t practice) daily prayer.  I will choose a winner, at random, from the comments. You have until April 18 to enter!

 

On Having a Prayer Life: a book review

I had a mentor once who warned me of the danger of reading about prayer without praying. There is no shortage of books on prayer which describe prayer’s power, methodology, theology and practice. I have found many of these books thought-provoking and a few inspiring. But some books remain opaque to me–either too deep for me to grasp with my own shallow practice of prayer or too dry to set my heart ablaze. Mary Kate Morse has written a book on prayer which is theologically rich, warmly invitational and inspirational. A Guidebook to Prayer presents twenty-four ways to deepen your relationship with God and enter into the practice of prayer.

Morse describes prayer as ‘a love relationship involving the interdependent union of the Trinity’ (17).  Thus she doesn’t emphasize the duty of prayer but the way we attend to our relationship with Him. She says, “Rather than asking ourselves, ‘am I praying each day?’ we should ask ourselves, ‘Am I in a love relationship with God today? Am I living like Jesus today? Do I smell the sweet breath of the Spirit today?'”(17).

This focus on how prayer cultivates our friendship with God is a welcome alternative to approaches that treat prayer instrumentally (i.e. what does prayer do?) or in a utilitarian way (i.e. what do I get out of praying?). Instead Morse invites us to see prayer as our participation in the life of the Trinity.  A Trinitarian framework for thinking about prayer is the organizational framework for her book. The Twenty four ways of ‘praying’ are presented under the headings: ‘God the Father,’ ‘God the Son,’ and ‘God the Holy Spirit.’

In Part One, Morse  focuses on the Fatherhood of God. She begins with a  ‘community prayer’ which evokes  both the divine community (The Oneness of God) and the ways God’s people have publicly prayed as a community for millennia (the unity of the Church). She includes both Jewish prayer (i.e. Praying the Psalms, the shema ) and praying set prayers with a prayer book (i.e. The Divine Hours, Common Prayer, etc.).  Morse reflects on various attributes (His holiness, His loving-kindness,  His Worthiness) and activities of God (His creation, His resting, His activity) as invitations to different ways of prayer. She describes ‘creative prayer’ (making something as an act of prayer), work prayer (praying as part of your vocation, contemplative prayer, confession, blessing and worship.

Part Two reflects on Jesus’ example. The incarnation invites us into a whole new way of being. Praying in Jesus name means experiencing Him in his Humanity, in His lordship, in His servant nature–as reconciler, as love embodied, as teacher, as sufferer, as savior and as the head of the body. The prayers in this section invite us into a whole new way of being drawing on Christ’s example. Morse presents some classic prayer practices (i.e. the daily examen, lectio divina, the sacraments) with other prayers which invite us to put on the character of Christ. With Jesus we are invited to pray (and live) simply, as servants. At times this means we pray playfully aware that God is with us in our joys. But we enter into suffering and relinquish our need to be in control, learning that God is with us in our sorrows.

Part three describes the experiential dimension to our prayer life in the Spirit. The prayers that Morse collects in this section explore the Spirit’s ministry of intercession, discernment and guidance. The Spirit is what enables to experience God’s presence, His protection and deep joy. Thus the prayers in this section invite us to receive from God.

I find the Trinitarian framework helpful and inspiriting. I read this book with an eye towards practice and have attempted some of the prayer exercises that Morse suggests for individuals. However, each chapter includes suggestions for practice in groups, or with partners. This makes this an ideal resource for small groups,  prayer-partners, or really anyone seeking to deepen their relationship with God. Morse really has a gift for presenting these practices in a way that includes seasoned pray-ers and spiritual neophytes. This is the sort of resource that is accessible to anyone wishing to enter the life of prayer. But this a book meant to practiced and not just read.

Morse has G. K. Chesterton quote at the beginning of her introduction which says, “The difference between talking about prayer and praying is the same as the difference between blowing a kiss and kissing.” More so for those of us who are perennial ‘readers of prayer books.’ We are even further removed from the conversation. I am a better reader than I am a pray-er. However Morse’s book has inspired me and I have made plans to do each of the partner exercises with my wife over the coming weeks. This book holds out a means to deepen our prayer-life and our participation in the life of the Triune God. I give this 5 stars: ★★★★★

Thank you to InterVarsity Press for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.