Prayer that Lives: Living Your Prayers

With so much happening in our world, most specifically our nation, I would be remiss not to mention both the four year anniversary of 9/11, and the devastation of hurricane Katrina along the gulf coast. I know that we all hold those involved in our hearts and prayers. But it also got me to thinking about how we can more concretely facilitate connection to each other and the community of the church through our prayers.

Prayer has long been one of my favorite subjects. The Heavenly Doctrine for the New Church describes prayer as: speech with God (AC 2535), disposing ourselves to what is holy (AC 3054), adoration in worship (AC 10298), asking help (AC 8391) and seeking peace (AC 8179:2), desiring that God’s will and not one’s own be done (AC 8179:3) , and even life itself (AR 956). We’re also told that our conscience guides us in what to pray for:

They who have conscience, speak from the heart the things which they speak, and do from the heart the things which they do. They have also an undivided mind, for they act according to that which they understand and believe to be true and good. (NJHD 131)

Jesus Christ, God Himself prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, while He was in the throes of temptation prayed the supreme example of an effective plea for help: “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” On the threshold of the glorification, His struggle against all the external heredity from the world pulling against the Divine will is an image of what the challenge of true spiritual life looks like. It is also a beautiful picture of how we ask the Lord for help in despair. We have to surrender. We have to recognize that it is He and not us that forges the path to heaven, and overcomes the battles against temptation. He reorders our lives for the sake of a lasting relationship with Him. We make the as of self choice to follow Him in life, and He fills in that heart.

For all these reasons and more, I’d like to see us make prayer more of a priority in the life of the church this month. As always, there are devotional cards at the back of the church for you to include a favorite passage, prayer, or struggle in your life which you would like to have included in the thoughts of the congregation during the week. Please take advantage of this opportunity to engage the power of prayer in the church. I read those cards, and make sure that both the passages and prayers are dedicated in the collection plate along with the financial contribution.

Let’s remember our church, our country, and our whole community in our prayers this month. All of them our neighbors. We are to pray for the Second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ – that it might touch the heart, mind, and life of all God’s children with a sense of the guidance of His Providence and the eternity of His peace.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love You.” (Ps. 122:6)