Ready, Set, Pray

The heart of the matter.

You don’t start a workout regime without a goal, teachers don’t start the school year without a syllabus and construction managers don’t begin a building project without blueprints. If we are set out to discover how to live a life of prayer in our bustling daily lives, then we need a goal. 

The goal of praying from the heart boils down to…

…fostering a habitual and constant connection with God throughout the course of our day (prayer without ceasing) in order to transform our thoughts into His, our desires into His and our prayers into the Lord’s prayer—thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Prayer in and through our heart alters us, but the beauty of it is that what we gain overflows from our lives into the lives of others. The repercussion is compassion. The result is that we live out the Kingdom coming. 

What is a prayer of the heart?

Nouwen outlines it in three ways in his book, I have added a little to these.

1. It’s simple.

2. It’s unceasing; through the Church: the priesthood of believers (collective)

3. It’s life-giving. It transforms us into compassionate people.

Putting off the Old View, to Put On the New View

I’ve viewed prayer as an intellectual activity throughout my Christian walk. The act of prayer has been left-brained orchestrated at best. This includes my theology of prayer to the words in which I construct my prayers, including my mental struggle to pray. In fact, my fears concerning prayer have been conjured by my mind. I’m afraid my limitations in prayer are perhaps a direct result of having left my heart out of my prayer life. 

I’m intrigued by the idea of engaging my heart in prayer because for once I am choosing to step out of my left-brain mentality in order to allow the Holy Spirit to guide me. I am choosing to let go and give God full reign over my heart. To do this I must remember it’s a discipline, an exercise to form a new habit in my life. It means sacrifice and hard work. 

So let’s start.

For the next four weeks I’d like to train, alongside you, through practical ways that fit into our daily lives in order to practice and learn how to pray with our hearts. There is no specific formula, but the areas listed below have been practiced over the centuries and that’s where I’d like us to focus. As we incorporate these various exercises into our daily lives I’ll also attempt at defining what prayer of the heart means when we say; simple, unceasing and life-giving. 

And yes, we will be making space in our busyness to exercise our heart—no excuses.

This is what you can expect each week. Tomorrow I will post week one’s practice. That way this time of prayer will lead us up to Thanksgiving, allowing us the chance to reflect and consider these exercises and how we can continue to practice them every day.

Week 1: Repetitive, habitual prayer.

Week 2: Practicing silence.

Week 3: The discipline of solitude.

Week 4: Outcome of a heart of prayer.

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