January 7-13 is the national week of prayer in the Assemblies of God.Throughout this week, I will be sharing daily devotions on prayer. May you draw closer to God in 2018 as you seek His face.
We have touched on the whether and the why of prayer. Now we need to pay attention to the how. Four questions arise: How often should we pray? Where should we pray? Should we use patterned prayers? And what should we pray for?
First, how often should we pray?
Jesus does not say. In Matthew 6:5, He begins, “And when you pray, ... ” then talks about where to pray. Jesus assumes we will pray; He does not tell us how often.
Jesus’ own life suggests an answer, however. According to Luke 5:16, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
Luke does not quantify the word often, but his words indicate that Jesus prayed at regular intervals. I think we can safely assume that Jesus observed the set hours of prayer practiced by His fellow Jews. Several clues point in that direction:
- Jesus’ parents kept the Old Testament laws regarding circumcision, purification, presentation of infants to the Lord, and sacrifice, as “the custom of the Law required” (Luke 2:21-27).
- Not only that, according to Luke 2:41-42, they went to Jerusalem every year for Passover, “according to the custom.”
- Luke 4:16 tells us that Jesus “went to Nazareth ... and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.”
- According to Acts 2:42, the early church members “devoted themselves ... to prayer.” (Without explanation, the NIV translates the Greek plural with an English singular.) The prayer or prayers mentioned here most likely refers to set hours of prayer observed throughout the day.
- Finally, according to Acts 17:2, “As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures.”
What emerges from these clues is that Jesus, instructed by His parents and imitated by his protégés, faithfully practiced Jewish customs, including Sabbath observance, synagogue attendance and prayer.
If we want to experience God through prayer, we ought to follow Jesus’ example. At minimum, this means making time for biblical meditation and prayer twice daily.
Psalm 1:1-2 tells us that the person whom God blesses “meditates on his law day and night.” And in Psalm 88:1-2, the psalmist exclaims, “Lord, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out before you.”
Going further, it means praying whenever a need arises. James 5:13-14 says, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them. ... ”
Ultimately, when we have developed good spiritual habits, prayer will come as naturally to us as breathing; that is, we will always be praying.
Consider Luke 18:1: “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
Or Ephesians 6:18: “pray in the Spirit on all occasions ... always keep on praying.”
Or 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “pray continually.”
So, how often should we pray? Routinely, occasionally and always!
(RNS) — While working in the Muslim community the past few years, I’ve grown to question why, as a Christian, I don’t pray more often.
For my Muslim friends, their five daily prayers, or salat, are about ritual and commitment, not about asking for specific things or finding comfort in difficult times. But for me, prayer is very often something I stumble into when I’m upset, happy, worried, aggravated or in need of a deep breath and regrounding. I certainly wouldn’t refer to it as a ritual, aside from when I’m in church or before meals growing up.
The more time I’ve spent around my Muslim friends, the more I’ve considered being more deliberate about my prayer life. So for Lent this year, I took a page from their (holy) book and prayed five times each day.
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Is this Christian?
I know what many of you are thinking: Doesn’t this blur the lines between Christian practice and Islamic tradition?
As it turns out, Christians are supposed to pray multiple times a day anyway — at least three for most and up to seven for Catholics.
After speaking with two priests I admire, I decided to set up my daily schedule using a Muslim prayer time app in combination with the Book of Common Prayer, a guide for Anglicans (and by extension, Episcopalian Christians) originally published in 1549.
Within these time frames, this was my daily schedule:
- Between 5:27 a.m. and sunrise: Daily Morning Prayer Rite One, BCP (an app on my phone changes the psalms and chapters so I don’t have to manually select them).
- 12:20 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.: Noonday prayer, BCP.
- 3:30 p.m. until 6 p.m.: Recite the Great Litany, BCP.
- 6 p.m. until 7:15 p.m.: Evening Prayer Rite Two, BCP.
- 7:15 p.m. until I go to bed: I read a Compline, either the New Zealand version or one on my app.
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Most of these prayers take 10-20 minutes, which I only recently realized is much longer than my Muslim friends spend on each of their prayers.
I considered shortening each one, but I realized that my prayer is a lot less obvious than Muslim prayer — there’s less movement and my prayers are in English — and much easier to do in public than my Muslim counterparts’, so I can’t fully understand the commitment to prayer that they have in terms of public visibility. When I pray it can be quiet or even silent, and not once has anyone given me a strange look or asked me what I’m doing.
What I’ve experienced
This experience has made me more aware of my relationship with God throughout my day, and I believe has made me a more patient person, although you should ask my family, friends and co-workers to find out for sure.
It’s given me a much deeper appreciation for Muslim Americans who shape their day around their prayers, and how this practice leads them to wearing their faith on their sleeves.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
It also explains a lot about the patience and compassion I’ve found in the Muslim community, as this style and ritual of prayer challenges individuals to take pauses throughout the day to center their mind on God and scripture.
I’ve also learned that following this schedule is very, very hard. There were many days when I was out and about and completely forgot to pray, times I was tempted to rush or skip through prayer, and for a majority of days, I was late to finish each prayer.
It was a powerful opportunity to step outside of my world and into relationship with God, and the more I practiced this the more I felt God’s presence with me throughout my day.
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Why others should try this, too
Anyone who wants to deepen their own relationship with God should try setting up a prayer cycle, or some variation. Episcopalians, like me, are especially welcome to use my model, and those of other denominations or faiths I’m sure can cultivate their own practices.
And in terms of our relationships to each other across lines of difference, anyone hoping to learn more about Muslim Americans would benefit from this as well, as there’s no deeper empathy than through genuine practice and understanding.
(Kate Chance is the community engagement manager for Islamic Networks Group, a nonprofit organization with affiliates and partners around the country that are pursuing peace and countering all forms of bigotry. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)