On the discipline of prayer

 At most of our Sunday morning services of worship, our opening prayer is The Collect for the Day from The Book of Common Prayer.  This week that prayer is:

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to

hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire
or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid,
and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy
to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus
Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Some of the opening words of this prayer strike a chord in me: “…You are always more ready to hear than we to pray…”  What a profound insight into the nature of God … and human beings.  God is listening.  God is always prepared to listen.  God patiently waits for our prayers.  And, God actively seeks us out and entreats us to pray.

 People talk to me about their faith.  Sometimes they say, “I wish I read the Bible more.”  Occasionally their topic is, “I feel like I ought to give to the church better than I do.”  But most of the time, most of the time when people talk to me about things spiritual, they say, “I desire a deeper, more fulfilling prayer life.”    I observed in a sermon recently that we best understand prayer as a dialogue, as a conversation between God and us.  When I hear lamentation about the insufficiency of a person’s prayer life, my question (often unspoken) is, “Who has let the conversation lag?”

 Prayer is one of those activities that falls under the umbrella of “spiritual disciplines.”  I am afraid that folks often emphasize the “spiritual” to the neglect of “discipline.”  Of course, I am not using “discipline” to talk about the experience of punishment.  “To discipline” was teacher code for “stand in the corner” or “go the principal’s office to receive a paddling.”  The dictionary definition of “discipline” is “orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior.”  Prayer is a discipline in that it is an orderly pattern of behavior in our lives.  Regular prayer becomes a part of our lives just as much as eating and sleeping.  A person who regularly practices prayer comes to the point where praying is an indispensable portion of their routine.  It also becomes more and more natural over time, so that the believer no longer thinks of praying as an obligation (or a chore).  Instead, it is a welcome part of the day’s activity.

 Imagine, being just as ready to pray as God is ready to hear.