Going Vertical

When I'm overwhelmed by the horizontal perspective of daily living, it's time to go vertical using the Psalms.  How the Psalms Verticalize Our Lives by Dane Ortlund at Crossway

Slow Down. Calm Down. Look Up.

The Psalms let us slow down in our very fast-paced lives and commune with God, meditating on who he is. They train us in verticalizing our lives.

So we’re going through our lives and everything is horizontal—our lives in general are lived on this horizontal plane. But the Psalms help us live life mindful of God. In other words, they help us live in an ever-prayerful way, in a way that is worshipful, in a way that brings every adversity to God, and in a way that brings every joy and thanksgiving to God.

This verticalizing of our lives calms us down and helps us live moment by moment in a way that is trusting the Lord and at peace with him.

Prayer Is Not the Center

"Oddly enough, many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God. Making prayer the center is like making conversation the center of a family mealtime. In prayer, focusing on the conversation is like trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it. It freezes us, making us unsure of where to go. Conversation is only the vehicle through which we experience one another. Consequently, prayer is not the center of this book. Getting to know a person, God, is the center."

            - A Praying Life by Paul Miller (Kindle Locations 378-382)

HT: Dash House

Without Ceasing

5 Battle Tested Ways to Pray Without Ceasing by Chris Russell, via Bible Study Tools:

....In verse 17, Paul says that we are to pray without ceasing. Those are just three simple words, and yet they carry a life-changing message—if we actually apply them.

What does it mean to “pray without ceasing,” then? Well, it does not mean that we spend the entire day on our knees praying without engaging in any other activity. If we did that, we would not be able to keep a job or pay our bills.

The directive to “pray without ceasing” means that we are ever present with God throughout the entire day. We are continually interacting with Him in prayer as we move from task to task. When we face a challenge, we ask for His assistance. As we experience a blessing, we thank Him for His favor.

It’s sort of like being on the phone, and we never hang up. We acknowledge His presence throughout every single day.

But we’re busy, right? And it’s easy to get distracted. So, we often forget to include Him in our day, and we often fail to pray without ceasing.

n light of this, let me offer several simple things you can do that will help you to pray without ceasing in your own life. 

1. Walk with God.

By “walk with God,” I mean that you should consider going on regular walks each week in which you pray while you are walking. Some people go for “prayer walks” around their neighborhood for the purpose of praying for their neighbors. I personally like to walk on the treadmill regularly, and I often spend that time praying while I’m walking. It’s a great way to go deeper with God while you’re getting a bit of exercise.

2. Run with God.

And if you are into fitness, you may even consider praying while you are running or working out. Focusing on your spiritual state while you are working on your physical growth is a beautiful blending of those two aspects of your wholeness. Some people listen to music while they work out. What if you used that time to listen to worship music and turned it into a worship/prayer encounter? This can be a great opportunity to grow spiritually as you develop physically.

3. Drive with God.

Most of us spend several hours driving each week. We drive to work. We drive to the store. We drive to various events and on various tasks. Wouldn’t it be great if we turned those solo drive times into a prayer event? It’s a pretty simple decision to make, and you can commit those drive times to prayer any time you want.

In order to help you remember to use this time for prayer, you may want to put a sticky note on your dashboard for a while that says, “Drive Time = Prayer Time,” or something like that. This will help you develop a new habit of praying while driving. And I think you’ll be amazed at how much less stress you experience when you get into heavy traffic. When you’re communing with God, that time will become precious for you.

4. Wait with God.

How much time did you spend waiting this past week? We all end up waiting every week on one thing or anther, but we don’t always have a plan in place to use that time for something important. I would encourage you to be proactive and set up a plan to be able to pray whenever you find yourself having to wait.

One thing I do is to keep prayer requests on the Evernote app on my smartphone. This app allows me to record prayer requests throughout the week, and then I can pull those out and spend time praying during times of waiting that hit me each week.
We wait on traffic, doctors, clients, bosses, family members, etc. every week. So, why not plan ahead so that you can spend that time with God? You’ll find yourself no longer dreading those times of waiting!

5. Hide out with God.

One of the most powerful experiences I’ve adopted in my Christian journey is to take time to get away to places of solitude where I can spend a few hours at a time in prayer with the Creator. Sometimes I’ll go to a community park, state park, or a national park. And I always have to schedule these get-aways. I block out time on my schedule and make sure there’s nothing that can interfere with this time with God.

In an age of technology and non-stop interruptions, the discipline of solitude is often sadly missing from our lives. So, plan to hide out with God soon so that you can go deeper with Him in prayer. If you’re looking for ideas on how to use this time, then check out this blog post I wrote a while back: “How to Have a Half Day of Prayer with God.”

Absence

From @DailyKeller

On Biblical Mysticism and Quiet Times

Tim Keller has a new book on prayer coming out soon, and I can't wait to read it. The quote below is from an interview by Matt Smethurst with Keller about the book and the topic of prayer.

You argue for a “radically biblical mysticism” a la John Owen and Jonathan Edwards—or what John Murray called an “intelligent mysticism.” How should we view the intersection between theology and experience when we’re on our knees?

Biblical meditation means, first, to think out your theology. (That means having it clearly in your mind. Know what you believe.) Second, it means to work in your theology. (That means self-communion, talking to yourself. For example, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” It is asking yourself, “How would I be different if I took this theological truth seriously? How would it change my attitudes and actions if I really believed this from the bottom of my heart?”) Third, it means topray up your theology. (That means turning your theology into prayer, letting it trigger adoration, confession, and supplication.) Do those things, and your theology will intersect with your experience. 

In what ways is our evangelical concept of a “quiet time” lacking? 

Most conceptions of the evangelical “quiet time,” at least as I was instructed in them, tended to focus mostly on inductive Bible study. So it was more information-driven and less oriented toward communion with God. However, in reaction, we see lots of people talking about lectio divina—which can be defined in a lot of ways.

But I’ve often heard it described as reading the Bible not for theological truth, but in order to “hear a personal word from God.” The trouble is that you hear what God is saying to you in any particular place by discerning the text’s theological meaning. You can’t be sure that anything that happens to hit you that day is God speaking to you in the Bible. Yet if you spend all your devotional time using commentaries and other texts to figure out a passage, it takes up all the time and energy, and your prayer time is often perfunctory.

I’ve concluded that most people should set aside regular time in which we are studying the Bible, seeking to understand its meaning. Then, out of this study, we should choose passages to meditate on during our times of prayer. Martin Luther and John Owen believed (rightly) that before prayer it was important to meditate on biblical truths until our affections and hearts were as deeply engaged as possible. I find that their instructions on communion with God fit in with neither the typical evangelical “quiet time” nor the new emphasis on lectio divina. 

The entire interview is well worth a read.

Never Go It Alone

A poem by Phil Newton, based on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 (HT Trevin Wax)

How overwhelming, our Father,
that You would show such care,
such love and kindness,
to bring us not only into relationship with Yourself through Christ,
but also into relationship with the local church!

Your corporate focus on us—
sanctifying us in Christ Jesus,
calling us “holy ones,”
and uniting us with the larger body of Christ,
reminds us that Your will for us intertwines with
all of those that Jesus has redeemed,
so that united together in the Body
we discover immeasurable joy and purpose.

So in the church, joined together in union with Christ,
we experience grace to walk faithfully,
enrichment to our speaking and understanding concerning Christ,
confirmation that we belong to You,
gifts for service until Christ returns
to present us blameless in His presence,
and fellowship with the Lord Jesus.

Consequently, we realize that our treating lightly the body of Christ
corresponds to neglecting Your choicest gifts.

Living with a focus on our individualism
instead of our relationship with the body of Christ,
shows how far we’ve strayed
from Your purposes in the redeemed.

Having that “go-it-alone” attitude
when facing difficulties and temptations,
neglects the very means You have given
to build us up in a most holy faith.

Forgive us of these sins of neglect and self-centeredness.
Enable us to know great joy as forgiven people,
united as followers of Jesus Christ. Amen.

- Phil Newton, based on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Be With Before Do For

From Pete Wilson - There’s just one thing that matters 

Ever struggle with your priorities? Ever wonder what really counts? Stop wondering. Here’s what really matters.

All Our Longings Fulfilled

"The whole point is this: when we have cleared away the idols we have place before God - imagine using your arm and just sweeping away all those trophies from the mantle so that there is nothing between us and him- we open up a direct line to the God who is all in all. He is all love, all mercy, all light, all power, all compassion, all goodness, and all wealth. God is the God of all our longings fulfilled, in whom no voids remain.And that is all God wants and needs from us- our willingness to keep the direct line open so that he may be with us and be all of those things for us, with nothing standing between our love."

  - Elizabeth Scalia in  Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life., page 61

Asking For the Gift of HImself

From  C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms  (Harcourt Brace, 1958), 52-53

There, despite the presence of elements we should now find it hard to regard as religious at all, and the absence of elements which some might think essential to religion, I find an experience fully God-centered, asking of God no gift more urgently than His presence, the gift of Himself, joyous to the highest degree, and unmistakably real. What I see (so to speak) in the faces of these old poets tells me about the God whom they and we adore. 

Have you asked Him for the gift of Himself today?

Hat Tip: Dane Ortlund