Category Archives: Let Us Pray

Eugene Peterson has called “Help” and “Thanks” the two best prayers anyone can pray.  Anne Lamott added “Wow” to the list. These three words are all words that cultivate a mature spirituality “Help” cultivates reliance on God, defeating the egoic … Continue reading →

Here is my distilled essence of prayer.  First, prayer is attitude.  This means it includes occasional acts, but it is actually an ongoing disposition of the heart, not limited to fixed times of devotion. Second, prayer is abandonment.  It is … Continue reading →

For a long time, I thought of the phrase “pray without ceasing” in purely individualistic ways.  So, I developed techniques to bring me back into a spirit of prayer throughout the day.  I continue to make use of these “calls … Continue reading →

One of the oldest and simplest definitions of prayer is this: prayer is listening.  In a sermon Eugene Peterson amplifies the definition by writing, “People who don’t listen usually do too much, or do the wrong thing, or do the … Continue reading →

Just a reminder that I have written quite a few posts about prayer on a Facebook page entitled “Prayer Alive.” The page is currently inactive, but you can still access it and make use of the materials there in your … Continue reading →

The following words from Richard Rohr remind us why prayer is more a life to be lived than a time to be practiced–more an attitude than an action…. “It is usually over time and with patience that we come to … Continue reading →

St. Therese of Lisieux gave us a great gift in the following words about prayer…. “It’s a mistake to imagine that your prayer won’t be answered unless you’ve prayed something out of a book, some splendid formula of words, specially … Continue reading →

Prayer always includes permission to ask, “Why?”  But often the question remains unanswered.  At such times, we cannot continue to search for explanations.  This will only result in incurable frustration and confusion.  Instead, we must turn to Incarnation.  We can … Continue reading →

We begin to wander off the trail when we make prayer transactional rather than relational.  A request/answer prayer life fails to create the God/human conversation which includes requests, but does not define prayer in terms of them.  Our deepest relationships … Continue reading →

St. Augustine sheds helpful light on how we pray without ceasing… “And all my desire is before you” (Ps 37:10)… This very desire of yours is your prayer; and if your desire is continual, your prayer is continual too. It … Continue reading →

As much as I believe in this particular series, I have decided to cease posting on this topic for now. My time away from Oboedire during the holidays has reinforced my feeling that “less is more.”  So, Thursdays will no … Continue reading →

Read:  Genesis 18 I doubt we will ever be able to describe how prayer is “influential” with respect to God’s actions on the earth.  Sometimes we appear to see a quick and clear connection between our prayers and God’s actions.  … Continue reading →

Read: Genesis 17 Almost the entirety of this chapter is an extended prayer conversation between God and Abram.  It is the conversation which established “signs” of the Covenant which God wanted to initiate in and through Abram. The first sign … Continue reading →

Read:  Genesis 16 The drama of this chapter is both strange and understandable.  The story starts out good enough as Sarai gives Hagar to Abram so that he may have a son to carry on the Covenant line.  But when … Continue reading →

Read:  Genesis 15 The whole chapter is a prayer, revealed to be essentially a conversation between Abram and God.  That’s an insight worth noting in and of itself—prayer is “conversation with God,” and as such, it is carried out using … Continue reading →

Read:  Genesis 12:7-8 Wherever Abram went, his first act was to build an altar.  This is the Bible’s way of teaching that the foundation for everything else is prayer. We tend to make it the capstone—the act in which we … Continue reading →

Even though the Fall is not reversed—even though sin remains and its consequences continue to wreak havoc on the earth—there is a noticeable return to prayer as conversation with God, like Adam and Eve had with God in the garden. … Continue reading →

When you’re studying prayer, you may find that some commentators place the beginning of prayer at Genesis 4:26, where it is written that people began to call on the name of the Lord. But as we have seen, people were … Continue reading →

Prayer as “walking and talking with God” is severely contaminated in the Fall.  In fact, the first two prayers which come after the Fall are prayers of blame (3:12-13) and justification (4:9). Adam tells God that what’s happened is all … Continue reading →

I had intended to move on into the Bible and begin looking at actual prayers, but as I re-read the opening chapters of Genesis, and last week’s post, I was prompted to “stay put” and continue our meditation on the … Continue reading →

The first prayer occurred in a garden, not a church.  It was done walking, not kneeling.  It was conversational, not liturgical.  It took place in and around Genesis 1:28 when God gave Adam and Eve their first assignment, and they … Continue reading →

Throughout the history of the Christian church, prayer has been viewed as the chief means of grace.  This is because the primary understanding of faith is that of a relationship between God and us.  Prayer is the means by which … Continue reading →