#NeighborHood: Loving My Neighbors, It All Starts with Prayer
Week 1 Practice: Engaging A Rhythm of Daily Prayer
Zephyr Cove Retreat Center, Lake Tahoe NV, Photos by Rev. Kristen Yates
“If we don’t have a hidden life with God, our public life for God cannot bear fruit.”
“If we want to take steps to better love our neighbors, the first thing we do is to pray. Unless God builds the house, we labor in vain, and we don’t want to labor in vain. So we are to ask God, seek God, and see what He would have us to do. ‘God, You are the potter, I am the clay, mold me, make me, show me your will in my life.’ ”
It all starts will prayer ….
For those of us who follow Jesus, we have a desire to live meaningful lives and to somehow follow in his footsteps, but sometimes we struggle to know what to do. Well, before we focus on the “doing for Jesus”, we have to start with the “being with Jesus.” That is the proper starting point, for after all, we are God’s beloved sons and daughters, and God delights in simply being with us.
Too often however, we rush into the doing. For some of us, it is our way to try to earn God’s love. For others of us, our American quest for productivity moves us into premature action for it seems to us that prayer is a waste of time. Both motivations however, are misguided. First, of all, there is nothing we can do to earn God’s love - God’s love has been extended freely to us through Jesus Christ. Our desire to follow Jesus and to serve others is simply a response of love to God first loving us. Secondly, we couldn’t me more wrong about prayer not making a difference. When we pray, things happen in the heavenly realms, we are changed, God speaks to us, and we are drawn into the heart of God. We may not see our prayers answered in the ways and timing that we desire, but prayer makes a difference. So we pray!
Still many of us don’t know how to pray and don’t make space to pray. So this week, we are going to focus on some practices to help us pray. I encourage each one of us to make space for prayer, every day this week, whether it be for 5 minutes or an hour. Here are a few suggestions - try them all or focus on one or two of these practices over the next week.
Suggested Practices
1). Join Rev. Kristen any day M-F for prayer. Learn the Daily Office, pray for yourself and others, and be immersed in Scripture. For the full schedule, click on the following link. You’ll also find the text to the prayers if you would like to do them on your own. We encourage you, however, to pray with our community! http://www.missioncincinnati.org/daily-prayer-resources
2). Pray “Prayer As you Go” on your computer or through the app. PayG is a great daily resource for prayer, which includes music and a contemplative listening to Scripture. It usually lasts for about 15 minutes and is a wonderful way to rest in God’s love. Click here to access the daily prayers: https://pray-as-you-go.org
3) Pray Daily in the Celtic Tradition. The Northumbrian Community has put together a beautiful set of prayers for Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Compline. Find a time in the day that suits you and pray at that time every day. You can find the text to these prayers here: https://www.northumbriacommunity.org/offices/how-to-use-daily-office/
4). Start your morning with a 3-minute prayer from Anglican Compass. Prayer video is directly below.
“Why is it important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top? It’s important because it’s the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you ‘my beloved daughter,’ ‘my beloved son,’ ‘my beloved child.’ To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being.”