By Earlier this year I hosted a ‘Tuesdays with Mary’ Book club for one book: Learn to pray in 28 days. It wasn’t a favorite for any of us (it took much longer than 28 days). But…we had such a good time, a few us continued on another reading journey, this time with the book ‘What happens when women pray‘. The book was written in the 1970’s but still is relevant. The eye opener for me was a few sentences toward the end of the book talking about praying for peace in the Middle East, praying for less conflict within the country, praying for Moscow. Here we are 50 years later and we still need to pray for those concerns. At first you may find that discouraging like I did…but then it kind of hit me. We are who we are: imperfect, greedy, envious…the list goes on and on. But God knows this and still loves us. To be sure, we have many good qualities to counteract those not so great ones. But He wants us to be better…and he’s given us the playbook (the bible) on how to transform ourselves. Reading, while good, isn’t going to fully transform you. You have to pray. And there are right ways and ‘wrong’ ways to pray. Wrong is a strong word, which is why I put it in quotes. Perhaps it should be phrased as ‘there are better ways to pray’?
There is an acronym (ACTS) that GREAT for remembering the four types of prayer. When you pray you should have at least one of these elements (but ideally all four).
- A = Adoration
- C = Confession
- T = Thanksgiving
- S = Supplication
This book, while giving some guidelines for praying, was really focused on praying in a group. Outside of the Lord’s Prayer in church every Sunday, I haven’t prayed in a group (out loud in unison). This was outside my comfort zone, so I KNEW that it was important to press on.
There are lots of other chapters and nuggets on praying, but the major focus was on these 6 Ss for prayer
1-subject by subject. praying only one subject at a time
2-short prayers just one or only a few sentences from each person on each subject allows time for all to pray if they wish
3-simple prayers. One simple sentence from the heart not using complicated phrases.
4-specific prayer request. Use a notebook to list your requests and track answers
5-silent periods. Allow silent periods between prayers.
6-small groups. Usually best for newcomers, as well as for the shy or untrained. In smaller groups people can gain confidence in praying audibly.
We ended the night with me leading the group in prayer…where they repeated what I said. For me it felt awkward but good. I think we were all surprised at how it transformed us individually and the energy in the room. We were all focused on the same words, the same prayer. The only thing I can equate it to is when you sing a hymn…but often when singing you are focused on notes and not words.
In this moment, we were all focused on the words and communing with God. What a blessing!
Now how do I keep it up? Practicing praying and praying in a group!
Care to join me?