Prayer
Finding the Heart’s True Home
by Richard Foster
Part 2— Moving Upward
Chapter 11— Unceasing
Prayer
““When the Spirit has come to reside in someone,
that person cannot stop praying; for the Spirit prays without ceasing in
him. No matter if he is asleep or awake,
prayer is going on in his heart all the time.
He may be eating or drinking, he may be resting or working—the incense
of prayer will ascend spontaneously from his heart. The slightest stirring of
his heart is like a voice which sings in silence and in secret to the
Invisible.” Isaac the Syrian
OPENING PRAYER
1. A wonderful way of living always in God’s
presence.
It’s for everybody.
St.
John of the Ladder: “Let the memory of Jesus combine with your breath.”
Juliana
of Norwich: “Prayer unites the soul to God.”
Kallistos: “Unceasing prayer consists in an unceasing
invocation of the name of God.”
2. Is it possible? Do we even want it? Isn’t life complicated enough?
God doesn’t expect “all at once”
success
Practicing
God’s presence is strenuous, but everything else becomes less so.
Increased
focus, centered, less strain and stress, on toward serenity
We
can’t expect to experience integration of mind and heart with God if we only pray occasionally.
Holy
Habits.
3. Scriptural admonitions to unceasing prayer
Romans
12:12
Ephesians
6:18
Colossians
4:2
Philippians
4:6
Hebrews
13:15
Luke
18:1
John
5:19; 5:30
John
15:1-11
4. The Consuming Passion
Our
hearts have a desperate need for unceasing prayer
We
are a distracted people.
Through
it we can speak peace to the chaos—new “center of reference” for life.
We
must REALLY want it—it’s not automatic. It’s a discipline—a training.
William
James: “Religion exists not as a dull habit, but as an acute fever.”
5. Breath Prayer
Where
a repeated phrase from the Psalms reminds us of the whole passage.
“Oh
Lord, you have searched me and known me” Ps. 139:1
Gregory
of Sinai: “One’s love of God should run before breathing.”
The
Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” The
breath prayer expresses dependence, docility, trust.
Always
a request for something to be done in us, in line with the will of God.
Let
one rise out of your need for God.
Pray
it often. Let God plant it in your soul.
6. The Practice of the Presence of God
Brother
Lawrence, Thomas Kelly, Frank Laubach.
“…make
a private chapel of our heart where we can retire from time to time to commune with Him
peacefully, humbly, lovingly”.
Unhurried,
serene, simple, amazing, triumphant, radiant, new and overcoming.
7. Attuning our will to God’s Will.
The
will, as part of our broken soul, must be trained.
We
bring the will in line with God’s Will through discipline.
Salvation
is free and changes our state in an instant.
But the desire to be in unceasing
prayer with God takes effort on our part.
We can go to heaven with
out it, but the joy of living in constant communication with God in this life is worth
pursuing. The normal process of
sanctification can accelerate with
the purposeful and consistent bending of our will to God’s.
8. Steps to Unceasing Prayer
a. Intentional, perhaps awkward beginnings. Create a device to tie prayer to, such as a favorite color, a
common activity. Even washing the dishes
can become a call to
prayer.
b. Move prayer (maybe your breath prayer) into
your subconscious mind. Pray it often, until you are no
longer consciously thinking about saying it—it just “pops” out.
You become aware you are praying similarly to elevator music that
gets stuck in your head. You also may begin
to dream it.
c. Prayer moves from the conscious and
subconscious into the heart. It is a
natural progression from
the subconscious with continued practice.
Our compassion increases,
our heart becomes more tender.
d. Prayer permeates the whole personality. It is a rhythm that flows through us like blood and air. It moves us toward divine union—the ultimate
end goal in our life with
God. This is way down the road for most
of us, but possible.
9. 2 Things that Unceasing Prayer is not
It is not vain repetition. It is hidden prayer, done in the prayer
closet of our heart.
Vain repetition is something repeated
for its own sake, or accomplish a selfish goal.
It is
not compatible with confrontations and contention with those close to us. We may
need a “time out” while we work those things out.
10. Unceasing Prayer IS…
a
continuous inner abiding in the inner sanctuary of the soul where God waits for
us.
The
results are always in excess of the work put in.
Closing
Prayer
O Lord, my Lord, how excellent is your name in all
the earth. The Pleiades and Orion sing
your praise. Sparrows and chickadees
mimic their song. All creation seems in
harmony with you, the master Conductor.
All, that is, except me. Why? Why
do I alone want to sing my own melody? I certainly am a stubborn creature. Forgive me.
I do
desire to come into harmony with you more fully and more often. I do desire a fellowship that is constant and
sustaining. Please nurture this desire
of mine, which seems so small and tentative right now. May I someday become like the trees, which are
planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their
leaves do not wither. In all that they
do, they prosper.”
For
Jesus’ sake. – Amen
You can share our lessons with others who can’t be
here in person by referring them to
http://christian-transformationblog.blogspot.com
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