{"id":4259,"date":"2019-02-27T13:30:18","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T19:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nafwb.org\/?p=4259"},"modified":"2019-02-27T13:30:18","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T19:30:18","slug":"five-elements-of-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/five-elements-of-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Elements of Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Darrell Holley <\/strong><\/p>\n

During my first year of teaching\u00a0I discovered a little book by C. S. Lewis titled Letters to\u00a0Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0My thoughts had been on\u00a0prayer\u2014you ought to think about\u00a0prayer in your first year of teaching\u2014and\u00a0I found the book helpful. Now\u00a0there are some things in that book\u00a0that I don’t agree with\u2014as there are in\u00a0nearly all merely human works.<\/p>\n

C. S. Lewis was an Anglican, an\u00a0Episcopalian, and sometimes dangerously\u00a0close to Romanist attitudes on\u00a0prayer\u2014at least much too close for\u00a0my Free Will Baptist tastes. But I did\u00a0discover an idea in Lewis’ wise little\u00a0book that helped me tremendously.<\/p>\n

When we read the Lord’s Prayer,\u00a0we immediately recognize that it falls\u00a0into several groups of petitions. The\u00a0Roman and Lutheran churches say\u00a0there are seven petitions. The Greek\u00a0and Reformed churches say there\u00a0are six. I’m a rebellious Baptist, and I\u00a0say there are five.<\/p>\n

I would put them into these five\u00a0groups: (1) “Our Father, which art in\u00a0heaven, hallowed be thy name.” (2)\u00a0“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be\u00a0done on earth as it is in heaven.” (3)\u00a0Give us this day our daily bread.” (4)\u00a0And forgive us our trespasses as we\u00a0forgive those who trespass against\u00a0us.” (5) And lead us not into temptation,\u00a0but deliver us from evil.”<\/p>\n

Getting Started <\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea that I got from Lewis was\u00a0to use these groupings as the basis of\u00a0my prayers. He uses the idea of what\u00a0he calls “festoons” or “garlands.” Just\u00a0as you may hang up a garland of holly\u00a0and ivy over the mantle at Christmastime,\u00a0just so we can hang our\u00a0own personal petitions onto these\u00a0five general petitions.<\/p>\n

I suggest a method much like this:\u00a0kneeling for prayer (I’ll say more about\u00a0this posture in a minute), first pray the\u00a0entire Lord’s Prayer\u2014which version\u00a0you use is really not that relevant. Free\u00a0Will Baptists, at least as far back as I\u00a0can tell, have usually used the version\u00a0with the word trespasses<\/em>, but if you\u00a0prefer sins<\/em>or debts<\/em>, use those versions.<\/p>\n

Then go back and pray the different\u00a0petitions individually, hanging\u00a0your own garland of prayer onto the\u00a0petition. For example, you might pray,\u00a0“Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed\u00a0be thy name.” Then you might\u00a0spend time reverencing, hallowing\u00a0the Lord’s name, giving Him your\u00a0praise for His character and works.<\/p>\n

Getting Real<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then you pray, “Give us this day\u00a0our daily bread.” This is encouraging,\u00a0for God recognizes that all our needs\u00a0are not sweet, mystical, spiritual\u00a0needs. We also need food and shelter,\u00a0money for tuition, clothes for the baby,\u00a0a new water heater, or a good\u00a0used car. Express yourself. The Lord\u00a0wants you to want Him to help you.<\/p>\n

Then, “And forgive us our trespasses\u00a0as we forgive those who trespass\u00a0against us.” At this point we\u00a0have to face hard realities. Unfortunately,\u00a0not one of us\u2014if we are honest\u2014can go to our beds at night with\u00a0a clear conscience. We offend “in\u00a0thought, word, and deed” every day.\u00a0We need forgiveness. And we also\u00a0need to forgive others.<\/p>\n

Confess to the Lord your anger\u00a0and disappointment at the actions of\u00a0others. If you group it with your pleas\u00a0for forgiveness, you may find yourself\u00a0more sinning than sinned against, to\u00a0turn around King Lear’s words.<\/p>\n

Finally, \u201cAnd lead us not into temptation\u00a0but deliver us from evil.” We\u00a0pray not just to avoid temptations to\u00a0sin, though we should pray for that\u00a0kind of grace. But also for deliverance\u00a0from trials and all dangers. It’s\u00a0proper to pray for protection of your\u00a0family and your property, for deliverance\u00a0of your kin and friends and\u00a0even your enemies.<\/p>\n

However, with this prayer, as with\u00a0the earlier request for “our daily\u00a0bread,” we must always remember to\u00a0pray\u2014as our Lord Himself did\u2014”if it\u00a0be thy will.” We need to pray, not just\u00a0to inform God\u2014the Almighty knows\u00a0our needs before we ask\u2014but we pray\u00a0to put ourselves, by our own free will,\u00a0into submission to the will of God.<\/p>\n

The Lord has promised to answer\u00a0our prayers. But we have to remember,\u00a0consciously to remember that\u00a0“No” is just as much an answer as\u00a0“Yes.” Tennyson wrote, “Our wills are\u00a0ours, we know not how; our wills are\u00a0ours, to make them thine.”<\/p>\n

After completing the five petitions,\u00a0you can repeat the Lord’s Prayer\u00a0again, slowly, thinking very intently\u00a0but very briefly about each petition.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if this is exactly what\u00a0our Lord meant when He said, “After\u00a0this manner prayer ye” in His “Sermon\u00a0on the Mount” or when He gave\u00a0this prayer to the disciples in response\u00a0to their request “Lord, teach\u00a0us to pray.” But this seems to me to\u00a0be a good practice.<\/p>\n

What About Kneeling? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Obviously, the posture of the body\u00a0in prayer is not nearly as important as\u00a0the posture of the soul. Some of my\u00a0most piteous, most impassioned\u00a0prayers have been given in non-kneeling\u00a0positions: for instance, like\u00a0bouncing around in a car as it went\u00a0off an icy road into a ditch.<\/p>\n

But on the other hand, we have numerous\u00a0scriptural examples of people\u00a0kneeling in prayer and 2000 years of\u00a0Christian practice to recommend it.\u00a0When I was a boy, my family knelt together every evening for prayers. Our\u00a0Free Will Baptist ancestors used to\u00a0kneel together frequently in public\u00a0prayer. It’s good for the body to learn\u00a0that discipline.<\/p>\n

But, as C. S. Lewis says, ‘A concentrated\u00a0mind and sitting body\u00a0make for better prayer than a kneeling\u00a0body and a mind half asleep.”\u00a0When should you or your family\u00a0have your devotional hour? My family\u00a0had theirs in the early evening. I remember\u00a0reading in Corrie Ten Boom’s\u00a0wonderful book The Hiding Place<\/em>how\u00a0her family gathered at the table after\u00a0breakfast each morning for scripture\u00a0reading and prayer\u2014and they included\u00a0their hired help and, later, the Jews\u00a0they were hiding from the Nazis.<\/p>\n

Whenever you do it, do it regularly\u00a0and devoutly. Don’t make a big show\u00a0about it, just make it a normal part of\u00a0a normal, balanced Christian life.<\/p>\n

Let me give a large disclaimer. By\u00a0choosing this subject I don’t mean to\u00a0imply at all that I am an expert prayer,\u00a0or even that I really have a handle\u00a0on this art of prayer (and it is an art).\u00a0I’m still very much a freshman in the\u00a0school of prayer. But, in this as in all\u00a0things, practice makes perfect\u2014or, if\u00a0not perfect, at least better.<\/p>\n

Article adapted from Contact\u00a0<\/em>magazine, April 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Darrell Holley During my first year of teaching\u00a0I discovered a little book by C. S. Lewis titled Letters to\u00a0Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer.\u00a0\u00a0My thoughts had been on\u00a0prayer\u2014you ought to think about\u00a0prayer in your first year of teaching\u2014and\u00a0I found the book helpful. Now\u00a0there are some things in that book\u00a0that I don’t agree with\u2014as there are in\u00a0nearly all merely human works. C. S. Lewis was an Anglican, an\u00a0Episcopalian, and sometimes dangerously\u00a0close to Romanist attitudes on\u00a0prayer\u2014at least much too close for\u00a0my Free Will Baptist tastes. But I did\u00a0discover an idea in Lewis’ wise little\u00a0book that helped me tremendously. When we read the Lord’s Prayer,\u00a0we immediately recognize that it falls\u00a0into several groups of petitions. The\u00a0Roman and Lutheran churches say\u00a0there are seven petitions. The Greek\u00a0and Reformed churches say there\u00a0are six. I’m a rebellious Baptist, and I\u00a0say there are five. I would put them into these five\u00a0groups: (1) “Our Father, which art in\u00a0heaven, hallowed be thy name.” (2)\u00a0“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be\u00a0done on earth as it is in heaven.” (3)\u00a0Give us this day our daily bread.” (4)\u00a0And forgive us our trespasses as we\u00a0forgive those who trespass against\u00a0us.” (5) And lead us not into temptation,\u00a0but deliver us from evil.” Getting Started The idea that I got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4260,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259\/revisions\/4260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}