Some of this is courtesy of Matthew Mason's sermon on Sunday evening. When the disciples ask to be taught to pray, Jesus says, 'When you pray, say, Our Father...' . So prayer is speaking to Father. Not listening, or emptying yourself, not eastern meditation, not a super-spiritual connection with God, but talking to our heavenly Father.
And Jesus tells us a lot about our Father. Just from Matthew 6 & 7, we learn that our Father knows what we need, he's good, he gives and he forgives in the same way we forgive. That last one is, of course, a real challenge.
Matthew (Mason, not Disciple) suggested that if we're not used to talking to our Father, we could start with just 5 minutes a day each day in June. If there are 120 adult members at St Peter's, that's 10 hours of prayer every day! But surely some of us ought to manage more than 5 minutes...
(None of this removes the need to listen to God by opening our Bibles... but for now we're talking about talking to Father.)
Where and when do you find time to pray?
Some folk are good pray-ers: we're coming on. Although sometimes my personal prayers are little more than "Help!", but I'll try and build the conversation a little.
ReplyDeleteMike