Prayer as Moving Upward

life.biblechurch.org

PRAYER AS RECEIVING FROM GOD

Richard Foster has a practice in prayer called, "palms up, palm down."  As a person is sitting, he places his palms downward on his legs.  This is where he lets go or drops certain things.  Then he turns his hands upward to receive from God.  Only empty hands can receive.  Self-examination that never turns its gaze upward is never really letting go, but really only holding on more tightly.  I get stuck in this form of introspection more often than I would like.  Looking upward in prayer helps me to let go.

"In one sense adoration is not a special form of prayer, for all true prayer is saturated with it.  It is the air in which prayer breathes, the sea in which prayer swims."  ( Foster, Prayer-Finding-Hearts-True-Home, 83)  Moving Inward through prayer is necessarily followed by and accompanied with Moving Upward.  Without this movement, moving inward and letting go is doomed to become merely "self-examination [where] we will always end up with excessive praise or blame."  (ibid, 30) Letting go is necessary only so that now I can open my heart and receive from God.

davidniblack 

FROM GRATITUDE TO LIKENESS

Moving Upward begins with the Prayer of Adoration.  Moving Inward can become narcissism unless I move toward "the grateful center, . . .  a time and a place where we were free of all the grasping and grabbing, all the pushing and shoving, all the disapproving and dissenting."  (ibid, 88)  Such thankfulness brings me away from mere self-examination into a true hope and a real love.  I let go so I can receive the goodness of God through adoring him.

The Prayer of Rest, Sacramental Prayer, and Unceasing Prayer teach me ways in which I can better receive from God.  In practicing rest, I find that the work of prayer and everything else does not lie in my hands, but in God's.  Sacramental Prayer and Unceasing Prayer are ways I can join God in his work rather than try to get him to do what I want.  They focus on using my body and other parts of creation to pray as in sacraments, or in drawing my attention back to God throughout my day, so that each moment is spent with him as an unceasing prayer.  I receive God's presence and life by resting on him and seeking him moment by moment.

Prayer of the Heart, Meditative Prayer, and Contemplative Prayer take the conversation I have found in resting with God, sacraments, and unceasing prayer and move them into communion and union with God.  In Prayer of the Heart and Meditative Prayer, I find I increasingly feel as God feels and think and God thinks.  They are gifts and practices.  In contemplation, the communion of shared thoughts and feelings becomes the union of shared will.  I anticipate willing what God wills from a heart formed into his likeness, "in true righteousness and holiness."  (Ephesians 4:24)  I receive the very best that God can give: himself living in me.

COMMUNION AND UNION WITH GOD

Moving Upward in prayer begins with gratitude.  Without thanksgiving I do not see life as it really is.  I do not understand how God really is.  Gratitude begins the journey to companionship (covenant) with God.

As gratitude takes root in my life, I can begin to discover and understand the mind of Christ.  His thoughts and feelings become the focus of my attention and the "bread" on which I live.  I turn my thoughts and feelings toward him more and more as I share communion with him in my mind.  From this immersion in the life of Christ, I find my will and my actions start to change.

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you." (John 15:7)  As the life and words of Christ make their home in my mind, my will and actions start to look more like Jesus'.  Through the renewal of my mind, God orders and enlivens my soul and my will and my body begin to act in concert with him.  I move from communion with God to union with God.

Quite frankly, I think I try to skip from gratitude to union.  I guess the process of change through communion and the renewed mind are more work than I want to do.  Obviously, the whole work is from God, but equally obvious is that he won't do it without my involvement.  As I heard Dallas Willard say recently, "We are not waiting for grace, grace is waiting for us."  God wants communion and union with me, but I find myself distracted and more interested in other things.

His mercy is patience.  He waits and works with me lovingly.  For this I am grateful.

Lord, where I place my mind is very precious to me.  I think long and hard about plans for myself and what I want.  I want to have the mind of Christ instead.  I want to be free from the worry about my own "kingdom," and my own name and be solely focused on you and yours.  I don't want to keep your grace waiting anymore.  Amen.

Prayer as Moving Inward

LETTING GO IN PRAYER

One of the most pressing needs in my life has been trying to teach prayer.  It is not that I have classes to teach or people knocking down my door; I have children who ask.  They want to know how to hear God, how to be near him, how to discover a conversational life with him.  Recently for my work in the Renovare Institute for Spiritual Formation I read Richard Foster's Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home.  He outlines some important kinds of prayer that my family has found helpful.

"Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth, but from falling in love."  (Foster, 3)  Prayer is not just a feeling, but it includes feelings.  Neither forced nor glib, prayer is the honest response when my mind is moved by thoughts of God and his ways.  Rather than thinking I will be heard because of my many words, I pray when I love a Father who loves me so much and knows me so well that he knows what I need before I ask him.  Foster breaks the response into three pieces: Moving Inward, Moving Upward, and Moving Outward.

"Moving Inward" plagues the minds of some Christians because there are those who practice moving inward without moving upward or outward.  While I find it possible to get stuck in morbid self-examination and find myself distracted by the many methods of moving inward, such prayer is not high sustainable.  I find that in my life such introspection devours itself unless it is taken over by pride and made into a show.  I believe that the main purpose of moving inward is learning how to let go.

"To pray is to change."  (Foster, 6)  Real prayer is marked by repentance, not as feeling sorry, but as changing how I think about God.  For any worries about this process of moving inward and letting go as some form of dangerous "mysticism" or "Eastern meditation," I must simply answer that I cannot imagine repentance without some form of moving inward and letting go.  Without this portion of praying, I find my prayers very rote and my God very far away.

THE PATH TO OBEDIENCE

The pathway to letting go begins simply, with Simple prayer.  "We begin right where we are: in our families, on our jobs, with our neighbors and friends." (Foster, 11)  "By praying we learn how to pray."  (ibid, 13)  I learn how to let go of praying as if I were someone else instead of praying a just simply me.

Although the Father answers gladly my simple prayers, I am faced with times when I am forsaken.  I like how Foster says, "When you are unable to put your spiritual life into drive, do not put it into reverse: put it in neutral."  (ibid, 24)  I find that in the wilderness I learn to let go of what I think God should be and embrace who he is.

Further on the road of letting go, I look more deeply into my life and my heart through the Prayer of Examen.    Inevitably, from such knowledge of myself comes the Prayer of Tears.  Certainly I see my sin and my weakness, but also I grow in my ability to recognize God's grace and comfort.  God's complete faithfulness makes Examen and tears occasions of joy and growth.  I let go of trying to make it on my own.

Prayers of Relinquishment, Formation and Covenant start me on the journey of spiritual exercise and renovation.  "Only through the specifics of daily life can you be led into the Prayer of Relinquishment.  The will is surrendered moment by moment as you face the ordinary decisions of home, family, and job."  (ibid, 55)  In letting go moment by moment, I find that I need specific plans and activities that train me.  Formation Prayer is going over such exercises with my Father, seeing where pruning and growing needs to occur.  Finally, Covenant prayer solidifies the heart of letting go: obedience.  I have found that "obedience has a way of strengthening rather than depleting our resources. . . .  Obedience begets obedience."  (ibid, 72)  I let go of needing to have my way.

LETTING GOD

Moving Inward is not merely self-examination or morbid introspection.  I find that I must let go of my desire to keep things as they are in order to pray.  I have to let go of my worry about my life not being what I want it to be and draw near to God in my life as it is.  I learn to let go of false ideas of who God is and of what I think he should do and to embrace his mysterious loving work for good in my life.  I find that as I draw near to God I have to let go of trying to make it on my own and of trying to get my own way.  All of this "letting go" is the stuff of repentance which allows me to fall into his arms.

My children are willing to experiment with prayer.  I find that I have few definitive answers, but lots of hopes and ideas for how we can draw near to God.  The greatest joy is finding that as I move inward, God is not far away, but right there with me.  Without him, moving inward and letting go would be too frightening to take on in my own life or in the life of my kids.  But with him, we find that even though we have emptiness and pitfalls within our souls, he is there to fill us and carry us through our darkest nights.

Lord, let my journey inward be one of discovery and joy in the company I have with you.  I do not want to be afraid of what I find, but hopeful in the work you are doing in me and with me.  You are the Master Physician, the Great Healer, and my Comfort.  I want to fall into your arms.  Amen.