Pray like Saints
You have either listened to or read enough from me to know that I like phrases — and the more alliterative, the better. I often say that God has called sinners sons and daughters, but I have always wanted to add another word: saints.
Saints seem scary. It feels like some perfect monk, draped in a robe, whose only vocation is to fast and pray. That is not me. I am okay calling myself a Christian, believer, and even a son of God, but saint feels like a bridge too far.
What is a saint? For a long time, I had the wrong understanding of sainthood. “To call someone a saint is not to necessarily call them good; it is only to name them as someone who has experienced the goodness of God.”
Are you a saint?
Have you experienced the goodness of God?
Have you discovered the love of the Father?
Have you been cleansed by His blood?
While I still struggle to fully accept the title, I hope we all pray like saints — that is, pray like people who have experienced the goodness of God! Pray like people who know the all-powerful and the always-present. Pray like people who believe in forgiveness and a future. Pray like people with a hope in heaven.
I hope you are a saint.
I hope you will pray like a saint — recollecting your experience of the goodness of God!
The Greatest Enemy of Prayer
What do you think the greatest enemy of prayer in your life is? Be specific!
Is it your sin, your shame, your choices, your aspirations?
Is it your job, your family, your anger?
What if I told you it was none of those things?
What if I told you the greatest enemy to prayer in your life is what you fill your life with?
Busyness.
Hurry.
Muchness.
These are the things that will stop you from praying the most. Richard Foster states: “In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness,’ he will rest satisfied.”
Do you feel that?
Thomas Merton explains that the greatest spiritual disease in our day is “efficiency.”
When muchness, hurry, and efficiency rule our lives, prayer makes no sense. Of course we are bad at praying because it does not seem like a skill that is worthwhile to invest in. The easiest way for Satan to get us to ignore God is not to challenge truth, but to keep us moving. Keep us busy.
You are too busy. You have said yes to too many things. You feel burdened to accomplish more than you can. You assume your worth is based on your schedule (and your lack of freedom in it).
Today, I encourage you to take seriously the words from Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
I challenge you today to find 3 separate moments to simply be still for at least 2 minutes. No phone, music, task, or distraction. Simply be still.
The Starting Line for Prayer
The starting line for prayer is knowing God. Actually, Tyler Stanton phrases it differently: discovering the Father’s love. “The most important discovery you will ever make is the Father’s love, and it’s just that — a discovery.”
Do you know that God loves you and likes you?
Do you believe that God loves you and likes you?
Many of us assume that God exists, but we struggle to believe that the all-powerful and all-knowing God cares about us (especially when we fail Him so often).
The Bible is the story of how much God loves and likes you. From the beginning, every man, woman, and child has rebelled against God, and at every instance God has continued to seek relationship with those who have run off. This comes to a climax at the cross of Jesus, when our Savior willingly endures the punishment we deserve so that we can be accepted by God!
Reflect on this paragraph today:
“I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that you are loved — loved right now without qualification or restriction, loved unconditionally for who you are, loved in a way you can’t lose. The bad news is that you find it very hard to believe that and even harder to experience it. Your instinct is, and will forever be, to try to drum up your own lovableness, to become lovable in some way you can define and control, to try to become in your own eyes what you already are in God’s. The good news is called grace; the bad news is called sin.”
— Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools by Tyler Stanton, p. 77.
Striving toward God
Over the last week, I have been reading the book Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools and wanted to use the devotions this week to share some things I have learned from it. (I highly suggest you grab a copy of this book and read it on your own!)
Prayer has always been a spiritual discipline I struggle with. I am an impatient fixer, which makes prayer hard. I would rather get to work than wait for God. I quickly assume being productive is more fruitful than prayer.
In addition to that, I struggle to slow down and create space to pray. If I am honest, I spend most of my day ignoring God completely as I focus on the urgent and important things in life.
Prayer is hard for me (and I assume for many of you too). I bet if you were honest, you wish you prayed more, were better at prayer, and felt confident you were doing it right. I bet you battle the thoughts in your head that prayer is a waste of time, a skill you don’t have, or something that is not going to change anything anyway.
Let me offer some words from the book that have helped me in my journey of prayer over the last few weeks:
“By praying we learn to pray.” — Richard Foster
The only way to get better is to practice. Just like with golf, sewing, or reading, the best way to improve is to practice. Sure, reading books, watching YouTube videos, or talking about it may help some, but eventually you need to swing the club, thread the needle, or make time to read. Prayer is the same. We grow our muscle of prayer by praying!
“If you want a life of prayer, the way to get it is by praying.” - Thomas Merton
Did you agree that you wish you prayed more? Well, start praying more. I am confident that if you pray more today, you will think about prayer more tomorrow (and hopefully actually pray more too). A life of prayer is created by days of praying more!
“Pray as you can, and don’t try to pray as you can’t.” - Dom John Chapman
We all compare ourselves to others and assume we come up short. That is awesome if someone can pray for an hour straight. I am not sure I can. But I can pray for 5 minutes straight. Pray as you can, not as you can’t. Don’t set goals you will fail. Set goals you can achieve and adjust as you go.
Find the ways you can pray, then pray in those ways.
Find the places you can pray, then pray in those places.
Find the times you can pray, then pray at those times.
“Before your head hits the pillow tonight, spend 5 intentional minutes praying.”
The Gospel IS Powerful
2 Corinthians 5:18-21
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling[d] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
IMPORTANT NOTE See the past two day’s devotionals or this one will be confusing (both are in your email or on our website, takes 5 minutes total to read both)
The last reason, from this passage at least, that we struggle and fail to share the Gospel, is because we miss the beauty of the message.
When was the last time you paused and reflected on what Jesus has done for you? You who was unworthy, who was actively rebelling against God, who hurt others and yourself with your sin. Your trespasses were many, uncountable even if you tried to make a list.
But God made Jesus, who WAS worthy, who walked in complete and perfect obedience, who healed and loved others in every single moment of His life, the one who deserved life. God made Him to BE sin, for you, for me. He made Jesus DIE, so we could live.
That’s why every time I take the Lord’s Supper I tear up, if I don’t actually cry. Because when I eat that stale little cracker and drink a little bit of grape juice, in my mind all I can think about was that I didn’t deserve the salvation I received, and Jesus loved me so much He was willing to die for one who hated Him by my life choices.
Here’s our issue. If we don’t reflect on the Gospel often, if we don’t think about what Jesus has done for us, it becomes stale just like the little cracker we eat. It loses its emotional and spiritual WEIGHT that drives us to action.
How much harder is it to share a message you don’t feel has power or the ability to change a life? Because none of us would say with our words we think the gospel is powerless, but then why aren’t we sharing about it with others?
We can’t claim the power of the Gospel and then with our lives reveal that we don’t actually think it has much power at all.
I can’t think of a nicer way to end this devotional so I’ll leave you with this.
Reflect on what Jesus has done for you, daily, hourly, as often as you need to. Remember the all-consuming, transforming power of the message that you say has changed your life. Then see how much easier it is to tell others.