Drawing Closer To God

The Place Called Presence

Unceasing Prayer

 

This morning we are back.  Last week we took a vacation from our metaphorical cruise of spiritual destinations.  Is that legal?  Can you take a vacation from a cruise?  Last week on Easter, we saw how drawing closer begins with who Jesus is.  Drawing closer to God is all about Jesus becoming one of us at Christmas.  Drawing closer to God is all about experiencing Jesus' death and resurrection in baptism; we do what Jesus did.  We are baptized into his death and rise to walk a new life, just like Jesus!  All that is a prerequisite to a life of intersection with Christ on the Throne!  It is because of Christ on the Throne that we are able to draw closer to God! 

 

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

 

It is in the mercy which flows from the throne of grace that we can draw close to God, especially in our times of need.  Because of what Jesus did on this earth, we can to draw closer to God.  It is what Jesus continues to do for us on the throne, which allows us to take a metaphorical cruise to spiritual destinations.  Jesus has paid the price for our cruise.  The Incarnation, The Crucifixion, The Resurrection and The Ascension of Jesus Christ is why we can enjoy our metaphorical cruise to spiritual destinations.  So, this morning we are back on our cruise.

 

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We are currently docked in a Placed called Presence. 

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Previously, at a Place called Presence… we discovered we can live at God's House.  "Hey congregation, where do you want to live?"  "At God's House!" 

-Living at God's house means we move in with all our stuff.  In Simple Prayer we bring it all to the dinner table in God's House and share with our Father.  Simple Prayer is laying it all on the table.

-In all good relationships there is talking and listening.  We should not hog all the prayer time.  In God's house we learn to be still.  We learn to keep our mouths shut, at least some of the time, so we can hear God's will for our lives.  Listening Prayer allows us to hear God in the silence.

-There is a tremendous benefit to living at God's house.  It is called Pondering Prayer.  We can ponder the challenges of our lives with God, in the living room of his house.  In Pondering Prayer we get answers to our questions.  Sure, sometimes the answer is, "Trust me".  This is a major advantage to living at God's house.  We hear the answer to our dilemmas when we ponder with God.

 

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That "previously" update gets us back to where we are, at the Place called Presence.  This morning I want to take it up a notch.  There is another type of prayer which harmonizes Simple, Listening and Pondering Prayer.  I want to challenge us with Unceasing Prayer.

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Listen to the biblical writers encourage us to Unceasing Prayer:

               

^NLT Romans 12:12 Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful.

 

Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

 

Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

 

Hebrews 13:15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-- the fruit of lips that confess his name.

 

^KJV 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.

 

The writers of the New Testament are pretty clear.  We should be involved in prayer all the time.  Prayer should be our default mindset.  That is an interesting concept.  Whenever I stop doing whatever I am doing, bam, my mind snaps to God in prayer.  It is like Sarah on Friday night, June 10th.  She is getting married on June 11th.  Every time she stops doing something, her mind will snap to, "Hey, I'm getting married in the morning." 

 

That is what we want to be.  We want to be immersed in God.  Every time we stop, we think about being in prayer with God.  Living in God's House means we are constantly in connection with God!   

 

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Throughout the ages ordinary folk have time and again shared the joys and struggles of Unceasing Prayer.  Listen to some thoughts on Unceasing Prayer.

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"There is no mode of life in the world more pleasing and more full of delight than continual conversation with God."

"Let the memory of Jesus combine with your breath."

"Unceasing prayer consists in an unceasing invocation of the name of God."

"He seemed not so much a man of prayer, as prayer itself made man."

"Oh, this thing of keeping in constant touch with God, of making him the object of my thought and the companion of my conversations, is the most amazing thing I ever ran across."

 

"Come on Tim.  That sounds on the edge of impossible."

 "Who would even want to do pray all the time?"

"Even if I thought Unceasing Prayer was a good thing, I doubt I could ever do it." 

 "Life is hard enough without adding another religious duty; something else to worry about."

 "Nobody can think about God all the time, who would even want to?"

 

I certainly vacillate between these two lines of thought.  I want to live in God's House all the time.  But I know me.  It is unlikely I can do it.  What would be better than to be prayer?  But I have a hard enough time remembering to pray before a meal.

 

In some, religion exists as a dull habit, but in others it is an acute fever.  We long deep inside to experience his continuous presence.  We crave for an increase in God's love, God's joy, God's peace, God's power.  A little prayer sprinkled here and there is not enough for us.  We long to burn with the eternal flame of devotion on the altar of perpetual prayer.  Well, that may be a bit much.  But we all need more prayer in our life.  Amen?  Yet, we struggle to offer a couple of wimpy prayers a day.

 

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Let's look at one method which may help us with Unceasing Prayer.

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It is called Breath Prayer.  Breath Prayer is a short simple prayer of petition which can be spoken in one breath.  Breath Prayer is repeated numerous times throughout the day.  Breath Prayer brings an intimate desire before God, bunches of times a day. 

 

Breath Prayer repeats a simple one sentence prayer which joins a biblical name of God with a God-given desire to draw closer to him.  This two-part sentence is connected to the in and out of our breathing.  Here are a few examples:

 

Breathe in "Abba" breathe out "I belong to you".

Breathe in "Lord" breathe out "Here I am".

Breathe in "Father" breathe out "I love you".

Breathe in "God" breathe out "My soul glorifies You".

Breathe in "Holy Spirit" breathe out "Come".

 

The fun part of this is you can customize this to your most meaningful name of God/Jesus and how it is you really want to connect to God.

 

The most famous Breath Prayer is called the Jesus Prayer.  An anonymous 19th century Russian Orthodox monk used Luke 18 for his Breath Prayer.  In Luke 18, Jesus tells the story of a Pharisee and a Tax collector praying. 

 

Luke 18:9-14 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'  "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'  "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

 

The Tax collector's prayer became the Russian monk's Breath Prayer.  "Lord, Jesus, Have mercy upon me, a sinner".  On the inhale - "Lord, Jesus ".  On the exhale, "Have mercy upon me, a sinner".

 

This phrase was repeated with every breath as the monk walked or did his chores or whenever he was not engaged doing something else with his mind.  As he repeated this phrase hundreds of times a day.  He sank into the presence of God unceasingly! 

 

You can pick any name and any phrase you want to be your breath prayer.  Your phrase may evolve over time.  You may realize a need to change it.  You may start with "Lord, help me understand your truth".  Then it may change it to "Lord, help me to live your truth".

               

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The problem at first is, obviously… remembering.  Until it becomes a habit, it will hard to remember.

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Let me give you one simple, way of beginning Breath Prayer.  Pick something that happens frequently in your day and use it as a reminder.  Those at school might use the bell.  Every time you hear the bell you say your Breath Prayer.  Those who drive a lot may use red lights as a reminder.  A person working in an office; phone ringing or a cell phone buzzing.  A mother of young children might use the word "Mommy".  That would get them up around a 1,000 prayers a day.  While watching TV you may use the commercials.  By using these artificial reminders we move closer to doing it automatically and then even naturally.

 

Here is your Dot Assignment: Pick a breath prayer.  Pick a reminder.  Do it.

 

If you are like me, it is encouraging to know God does not expect you to dive in immediately into the ocean of constant communion and swim from one continent to the other.  We move into this way of living through practice.  And the good news is while Breath Prayer may be hard to do at the beginning, everything else ceases to be so.  As we become more and more focused on God, I suspect, we will find ourselves going through the stresses of daily activity with serenity.  That would be amazing.

 

 I also suspect that the more we do Breath Prayer the easier it will be to do it.  It may be like running.  Learning to run for 3 miles is much harder than learning to run 12 miles, if you can run 3.  Just as the body adapts to training our soul does the same thing.  When prayer becomes the normal default thing to do all the time, then we will find it will be hard to refrain from prayer.

 

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Let's wrap this up.

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Unceasing Prayer harmonizes our lives.  It is what living at God's house means.  Unceasing Prayer centers our lives in communion with God.  It makes Simple Prayer automatic.  It makes Listening Prayer our default.  Unceasing Prayer makes Pondering our first response to problems.  Unceasing Prayer is our intersection with Christ on the Throne.

 

God calls us to "pray without ceasing".  We should not ignore this call.  We should not flippantly dismiss Unceasing Prayer, "That's not for me".  It is more than our duty; Unceasing Prayer is our need.  When we pant through an endless series of activities with scattered minds and noisy hearts; when we feel strained, hurried and breathless; when thoughts dart in and out of our minds with no rhyme or reason; when we can seldom focus on a single thing; when everything and anything interrupts our sense of concentration; Unceasing Prayer is the way of making our chaos into His peace. 

 

As we breathe in his name and out our desire we answer the call of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to…

 

^KJV 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.

 

Tim Stidham

Los Alamos Church of Christ

May 1, 2011