Extraordinary Prayer
As the American philosopher Ferris Bueller once observed, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” That’s actually pretty good advice! As followers of Jesus, we pause the busyness of life and get a new perspective on things through prayer (among other disciplines and habits).
Prayer is an opportunity to tune our heart to the heart of God. We know that Jesus made prayer a priority in His life. Check out Luke 5:16, 6:12, 9:18, 9:28, 11:1. Make some observations. What do you notice about Jesus’ prayer life?
In fact, Jesus taught us how to pray (Matthew 6:9-13) – so if you’re unsure where to start, start here: Jesus’ own teaching and example.
We believe that a radical prayer movement will precede a radical work of God. What is radical prayer? Don’t think of monks spending hours in prayer each day. Instead, think of your ordinary prayer life. From that starting place, what’s one next steps for you towards a more intentional prayer life? By definition, that will be radical - or literally extraordinary - prayer for you. As that new prayer habit or posture becomes ordinary, add a new practice or posture.
Radical prayer isn’t born overnight. It’s cultivated one step at a time! Here are some prayer resources to help you take a steps towards extraordinary prayer:
Blessing Prayer (Novo)
Prayer Walk (KC Underground)
Enduring Framework for the Praying Life (Dallas Willard)
The idea isn’t to learn something new about prayer, but to practice an intentional way of connecting with God’s heart for your life and your mission field. Prayer aligns our hearts with the heart of God, which means that any growing prayer life will eventually lead us beyond ourselves or our family—and onto the mission of God.
When receiving the Nobel Prize for her work among the poor of Kolkata, India, Mother Theresa claimed that anyone who viewed her life as being about social work or compassion had it backwards. Instead, she and her co-workers were nothing more than “contemplatives in the heart of the world.”
Everything that she is being awarded for - caring for the poor, rehabilitation of addicts, works of compassion and development - happened as byproducts of her first and primary work: prayer. Her life was about being with God and responding accordingly.
Intimacy leads to fruitfulness, not the other way around. Jesus’ own fruitfulness was the overflow of his time with God (revisit the above passages in Luke).
“Biblically speaking, inner prayer and outward compassion are inseparable” (Tyler Staton).
As you’ve been praying this week, how might God want to employ you to be a part of the answer to your own prayers?
Go and do!
