How Then Should We Pray?

Submitted by Rod Hugen

Many years ago when my two sons were young, I received a huge Christmas bonus --far more than I deserved --  and decided to take the boys to the toy store and let them get their heart's desire.  We sat in the car in front of the store and I explained to them that they could have anything they wanted no matter how expensive it was.  All they needed to do was point at it and I would buy it for them.  They looked pretty skeptical but were excited at the prospect.  We walked into the store and began to look around.  They would point at "action figures - each old separately" and other inexpensive items and look at me quizzically.  I would tell them they could have something far better than that if they wanted.  I expected them to want me to buy the most expensive bicycle or some hugely expensive electronic game, but in the end they settled for things only slightly more expensive than what I would have normally purchased for them.  I was horribly dissapointed that my kids didn't dare take advantage of my generosity.  I was thinking about that as Andy, Moses, and I were talking about our charge to keep prayer before this group.  The question is: Do I dare to ask God for the seemingly impossible?

At the Village we have a prayer practice that I have come to love.  We pray like this at our elder meetings and our monthly leadership meetings as well as inviting the entire congregation to do so at our quarterly "drumming circles" (probably better known to others as a congregational meeting).  It has been a powerful way for our community to pray.

First, we take fifteen minutes in which we ask our Father for anything we dare to ask and in which we also spend time acknowledging Him as our Dad.  We treat Him the way our kids treated us when they were little and believed we could do anything they asked.  We try not to limit our expectations of what God can or will do; we simply ask for our heart's desire.  I want Kelsea to get out of her wheelchair and walk despite the fact that she is paralyzed from the waist down.  I want my little sister who suffers from cerebral palsy to be healed.  I want hundreds of new churches to be planted in Tucson and I want them all to succeed in huge ways.  I want Tucson to be a God fearing city.  We ask for things like that.  We tell God that He is rich,  powerful, and wonderful and He can do it if it pleases Him to do it.  A lot of times we find ourselves trying to decide what God might be able to do for us.  We point at action figures, "each sold separately," and wonder if God is big enough to give us that.  When we catch ourselves doing that we stop and confess our doubt and then ask for what we really want.  We ask with the full knowledge that He might say no, but we try not to assume what things He will say no to since we don't really know.  It is difficult to ask for your heat's desire because you don't want to be disappointed.  It takes a lot of courage to speak out our longings.

After we have spent time asking our Dad for our longings we spend fifteen minutes asking Jesus to lead us in God's mission in this world.  We treat Jesus as our Big Brother.  Our Big Brother is always smarter than us and he knows all kinds of things we don't know.  We know that Jesus is the perfect Big Brother and that he is in charge of the mission and we ask him what he would like us to do to help advance the mission.  I ask him what he would like me to do or say to Enid, my wonderful Jewish widowed next door neighbor.  I ask him if he wants me to eat at a different restaurant or find a new barber.  I ask him to give me opportunities to share the good news of what he has done with co-workers and friends.  I don't presume to know what he has in mind so I just bring as many of my acquaintances, friends, and family members as I can think of before him and ask him what he'd like me to do with them or say to them and that I know that he knows best what to do.  I ask him to teach me what I need to know to be more like him.

After we spend fifteen minutes talking to Jesus as our Big Brother, we spend fifteen minutes where we are very quiet.  We begin by asking the Spirit to come to us and to speak to us and to let us know Dad's heart.  and our Brother's desires.  We grab our Bibles, pen and paper or iPads, and take notes on whatever we "hear."  We listen carefully for what we think God might be saying to us.  We take notes and look up Scripture passages that come to mind and remain as silent as possible.  God might bring a verse, a picture, or a phrase to our minds.  Whatever it is we write it down, even if it doesn't make sense to us in the moment.  We assume the Spirit is speaking to God on our behalf and that the Spirit will also speak to us.  Our job is to listen as best we can.

The final fifteen minutes we share with each other what we think we have heard.  We read our "lists" to each other.  It always amazes me the themes that arise during this time.  When our community was struggling with sharing the gospel with friends, five of our twelve leaders all wrote down Luke 12:11-12, When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say. (NIV)  Others had written down phrases like, "Don't be afraid," or "Speak boldly."  It was a beautiful reminder to our community leaders to trust God for the right words at the right time.  It touched some of our sinful demand to have circumstances be "just right" before we share the gospel.  Regularly praying like this has been informational for me and for our community.

With an hour gone, we scatter with the full knowledge that God is our Dad who can do anything, Jesus is our Brother who will lead us in the mission, and that the Spirit has and will speak to us as we follow along.