Next Sunday’s Gospel reading is Jesus’ teaching on prayer, starting with what we now call "the Lord’s prayer," and continuing with the “ask/knock/seek” promises. Jesus’ disciples ask him to teach them to pray. His response is simple: “When you pray, say: ‘Father, holy be your name.’ Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’”
Words so familiar, we might have trouble seeing them – and yet they represent a radical overturning of cultural, religious, emotional and economic norms. (Imagine our economy if we forgave all debts….)
Jesus invites us to address God as “Abba,” “Dad.” But this “Dad” is the Holy of Holies. Jesus' radical promise is that the Creator of the heavens and the earth is accessible to us, knows us intimately, wants to be known by us. Out of this relationship flows our prayer, and our life. Daily we receive the affirmation of the One who made us and knows us better than we can know ourselves. We receive instructions, and blessing, and peace.
Prayer is not a request line – it is a conversation within a relationship. Sometimes it isn’t even a conversation, more an experience of being in God’s presence, a “hanging out with” the divine.
Today, try calling God and rest in the waiting a little while. Sit down in stillness, take a few deep “in-spiring” breaths, let out some stale thoughts and feelings on the exhales, and then invite the Holy Spirit to come and play. Maybe say, “Hi, God…. You who are Creator…Father… You who are holy. I’m here. Who are you?”
Rest in that … pay attention to any responses you sense.
Pay attention to what you feel in your body - do you feel energy anywhere?
A tingle? A relaxing? A rush? Sometimes we have a physiological response to the Spirit’s visits.
Pay attention to what rises up in you. Do any images take shape? Do you receive any words or conversation or a desire to do something, pray for someone, go somewhere?
Write it down if you noted anything significant. Share it with someone. If you don’t sense anything, that’s okay – God may be taking some time, or your receptors need some tuning. Keep at it – the time we spend inviting more of God’s life into our lives is never wasted.
You have just invested in the one eternal relationship in your life. You have just opened yourself up to the power that made vast universes and each tiny cell. Amen!
Today is Water Daily’s sixth anniversary! I started out with this passage on this date in 2013 in Connecticut. Three years in, I moved to DC, and now I live in Maryland, by water, daily! Who could have imagined? A great WD birthday gift would be to invite friends to subscribe– I’d like to continue to grow this community of readers, thinkers and pray-ers.
Pay attention to what rises up in you. Do any images take shape? Do you receive any words or conversation or a desire to do something, pray for someone, go somewhere?
Write it down if you noted anything significant. Share it with someone. If you don’t sense anything, that’s okay – God may be taking some time, or your receptors need some tuning. Keep at it – the time we spend inviting more of God’s life into our lives is never wasted.
You have just invested in the one eternal relationship in your life. You have just opened yourself up to the power that made vast universes and each tiny cell. Amen!
Today is Water Daily’s sixth anniversary! I started out with this passage on this date in 2013 in Connecticut. Three years in, I moved to DC, and now I live in Maryland, by water, daily! Who could have imagined? A great WD birthday gift would be to invite friends to subscribe– I’d like to continue to grow this community of readers, thinkers and pray-ers.
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