Cultivating Passionate Prayer

Last week we began our new study, Pray: Cultivating a Passionate Practice of Prayer, from The Daily Grace Co. We’re just getting started and you are welcome to join us

Wednesdays at 12 noon.

Our introduction included a prayer practice you might want to include in your prayer tool box. We call it “Praying the Word as You Go.”

Simply choose an attribute of God from the list in our study or any other attribute list you can find. Write the word on a card or put it in the note section of your phone along with Scripture references for the attribute. As you go about your day, when little pockets of time become available, pull out your notes and read the attribute and Scriptures.

Our friend and teacher, Shelley Winn, shared her Circles of Life: The Journey of Body, Soul, and Spirit Toward Life Eternal. If you missed it or would like to be a part of this teaching, she will be presenting it again on Friday, August 18 during the lunch hour. You are invited to join us and are welcome to bring your lunch.

Two words catch our attention as we consider the first week’s study of Pray: Intention and Susceptible.

Intention. Jesus continually prayed and still prays today with much intention. He withdrew to the wilderness, went into the hills, and found solitude in the garden. Jesus practiced prayer by intentionally spending time alone with God.

If Jesus, the perfect Son of God needed time alone with His Father then we certainly do too.

Susceptible. At first glance this word has a negative connotation. Something we never want to be. But Jesus. Jesus made himself susceptible to God the Father. The word means open, unresistant to influence, subject, impressionable, and responsive. Jesus opened himself, submitted, subjected himself to God, and was unresistant to the Spirit’s influence.

Truth is we are all susceptible to something, and we have a choice in the matter. Prayer empowers us to discern who or what we are submitting ourselves to. It allows the transforming work of the Spirit to open our eyes and reveal the places where we are resistant to God’s way.

The Westminster Catechism describes prayer as an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.

Prayer runs much deeper than making requests. It includes pouring out our heart to God, fessing up when we missed the mark, and gratitude. Always… always… gratitude.

A passionate prayer practice is the intentional offering up of our desires and our will to God. All in the character of Jesus. Every passion begins to burn with one little spark. One small practice that builds an intentional prayer life.

What prayer practice is God calling you to?

Here’s a hint…

think small.

Featured image by Aaron Burden on Unsplash