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19

  Recent years have seen a great new interest in prayer and a great awakening of desire for some experience of prayer life. There is an abundance of books and tapes (audio and visual) describing the prayer methods and techniques used in different religious cultures. People flock to gurus and spiritual guides for help. This interest in prayer may be partly a reaction to the materialism of our age. But it must also be evidence of the human heart’s hunger for God and the activity of the Holy Spirit who is given to us to help us with our prayer. We surely must rejoice at this sincere and widespread interest in prayer. At the same time, I believe there could be some subtle and misleading side-effects of the very publicity that accompanies this welcome interest. I suggest two possible side-effects and hope that by noticing and considering them, we may deepen our appreciation of the true nature of prayer.

 One of these possible misleading side-effects could be that we might be led to see prayer as a skill, a technique, something we can learn and master if we read the right book or sit at the feet of some well-known guru. This again could be the subtle influence of our consumer society. Prayer may appear to be marketed like some commodity or appliance. You can learn this technique and develop a facility for prayer and it will bring certain desired blessings. This attitude would destroy the mystery of our faith, the mystery of God and of the unique relationship between God and each person. It could tend towards magic rather than true religion. Prayer is not a technique by which we can control or manipulate God and achieve certain results. We come to prayer with awe and wonder and a great sense of privilege as we humbly seek the face of the transcendent God. And we come with confidence, not because of any skill we have developed but because this God wants to uncover his face to us.

  A second possible dangerous side-effect of this widespread publicity about prayer is that it might lead some to feel inadequate and discouraged. People could begin to feel that if they have not read the latest book or listened to the latest tape or attended a prayer seminar, they could not have a deep experience of prayer. These books, tapes and seminars all cost money. One person said to me a while ago, ‘It’s becoming very expensive now to have a personal relationship with the Lord!’ There was no admission fee to the Sermon on the Mount and no hand-outs after it. But it’s not the question of cost which concerns me here, but the more subtle problem that people could be discouraged if they thought that progress in prayer depended n the many prayer-aids that are available. Now it is good and right that we should read the literature on prayer and learn from reliable teachers, both old and new, but we must also be sure that prayer is a gift which should be sought with humility. And we must repeat that our confidence in prayer is based, not on special skills, but on God’s call to our hearts, on his desire for our love and our sincere desire to return that love and surrender our lives to him.

  Let us ask what kind of people Jesus was talking to when he said ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him’ (John 14:23), or again, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty (John 15:5) or again ‘I have made your name known to them so that the love with which you loved me may be in them’ (John 17:26). Jesus himself tells us that it was to the poor and simple, and even sinners, that he was sent to reveal this great mystery to the Father’s love and his wish to dwell in the hearts of his people. ‘It was then that, filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said "I will bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children"’ (Luke 10:21).

  Someone has said that the only equipment we need for prayer is time. But, above all, there must be desire for the Lord and his friendship. It is easy to say the prayer of the Psalmist with our lips, ‘As a doe longs for running streams, so longs my soul for you, my God’ (Psalm 42:1). But to be so serious about it that I will discipline myself and make time – that is another matter. It is easier to spend an hour reading a book about prayer than to spend the hour praying. I like the cartoon which shows two great gateways. Over one is written ‘Heaven’ and thousands of joyful, simple people are pouring through the gate. Over the other is written ‘Lectures on Heaven’ and through this gate streams a large flow of rather serious-looking intellectuals, theologians and religious! We need to become children to enter the kingdom of prayer. But that does not mean that prayer is child’s play. It is helpful here to be honest and admit that, in a sense, prayer is not easy It is no offence to God to say that prayer is difficult. If we are honest and accept this, we might investigate why it is difficult and be prepared, in spite of the difficulties, to persevere in seeking the Lord’s face in prayer.

  Many give up prayer through disappointment, which mostly stems from false expectations of prayer. Many hope they will arrive after some time at distraction-free prayer which will bring feelings of consolation. Or they hope for an obvious improvement in their moral and spiritual life. When these good results do not seem to be forthcoming and when prayer, after years of perseverance, remains dry and distracted, they feel it is a waste of time. Even worse, some feel ashamed and think that their poor prayer is almost an offence to God.

  Surely, they think, if one sincerely seeks God and places oneself in the presence of the loving God, it should not happen that within minutes our minds can leave that presence and be distracted by the most trivial concerns, even by impure desires, while only the poor body remains at the place of prayer! Surely this cannot be pleasing to God or bring him glory. So they conclude that this kind of exercise is a waste of time quite unworthy of God. Surely it would be better to give this time to something worthwhile for God, like some charitable work for my neighbour.  This is false reasoning. We cannot and must not judge prayer in this way. Prayer is not meant to produce results like that. A deep prayer life is perfectly compatible with dryness and distraction. Measurable, growing control over our human weakness is not the criterion of our prayer. We do not pray to achieve results. Prayer is more about receiving than achieving. To receive you have to be there. We are not praying to develop our inner selves or achieve some kind of self-fulfilment. In prayer we forget about self. We empty self and open ourselves to God’s activity, which is infinitely more important than our activity. Prayer is its own end, to be with the Lord. If we persevere and are faithful, God will keep his promises and reveal himself. ‘When you seek me you shall find me, when you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me. It is Yahweh who speaks’ (Jeremiah 29:13-14). This seeking and finding is the work of our lifetime.

  It is a slow process and, paradoxically, can be painful. In a sense this must be so. It would be naïve to expect that, as we enter more deeply into the mystery of God, we would see and understand him more clearly with a clarity that would enable us to describe him to others. It is the transcendent God of infinite majesty, wonder and mystery that we seek. It is the ultimate reality that we explore. Some people accuse those who pray of choosing an easy option, of escaping from the reality of injustice and suffering into a world of forgetting and consolation. Surely this would be a very shallow idea of reality and prayer. Is reality to be identified with injustice and suffering? To wait on God in prayer, in a cloud of unknowing, can hardly be described as consolation. It can be totally humbling, even devastating, challenging faith at its deepest level; is there anybody there? Some years ago, in a film entitled The Ruling Class, Peter O’Toole played the part of an eccentric nobleman who felt sure he was God. When asked why he thought this, he replied: ‘Well, you see, they say that to pray is to talk to God. Now, whenever I pray, I find that I am talking to myself!’ Many believers who try to pray would admit, if they were honest, that this eccentric nobleman was not the only one to have this thought.

   Prayer calls for faith, love, humility. How humbling to enter the presence of the Lord and some minutes later find yourself engaged in some trivial, even base exercise of the imagination. Would it not be better to be out working for the good of my neighbour? The question is, is there a personal God who listens and speaks and wants my love? Or is there only my neighbour, and is loving him or her enough? What would Jesus say? He speaks of loving God with the whole heart and says that this is first commandment. I must resist the temptation to think my prayer is a waste of time. If I persevere, I can come to believe that, although nothing seems to happen, the moments of stillness, when I seek awareness f the Lord, are the most important and precious moments of my day, no matter what else I may do that day.

   Jesus came to save the world. As it turned out, he lived only 33 years on earth. Thirty of those years were spent in the obscurity of Nazareth. Doing what? We could say ‘nothing’ or we could say ‘growing’. Our sense of urgency and efficiency are offended by this strange choice of his, this extraordinary disproportion, thirty years a-growing and only three years of active evangelisation, and so much to be done. Judged by our standards of efficiency, Jesus wasted many years, but, again and again, he is inviting us to find and live by his values and standards, to think and live by the thoughts of God, not humankind. During those hidden years Jesus was often with his Father in prayer. I doubt if he was looking for ‘results’. His compassion, his love, his trust, his mercy, his courage and his death were the essential fruit of those years of hidden growth. Our prayer may often seem poor and wasted. Let us see it through God’s eyes. Our prayer is our hidden life. It is humble and hidden, but it is life.

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