What should you do when you find it difficult to pray? Prayer can easily be squeezed out of our busy lives so that we fall out of the habit of praying and grow spiritually cold and dry. When this happens, getting back into prayer is all the more difficult.
The great Martin Luther, who sparked the protestant Reformation in the 1500’s, used to have his hair cut by Peter the Barber. Presumably during a hair-cut one day, Peter told Luther that he was having difficulty praying. Luther went home and wrote an open letter titled, “How One Should Pray, for Master Peter the Barber”. The letter shows that Luther, who was an academic and theologian, was never out of touch with the needs of real people. It also gives some very practical tips on prayer.
Luther writes, “To begin with, when I feel that I have become cold and disinclined to pray on account of my preoccupation with other thoughts and matters (for the flesh and the devil always prevent and hinder prayer) I take my little Psalter, flee to my room, or, if it is during the day and there is occasion to do so, join the people in church, and begin to repeat to myself the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and, if I have time, some sayings of Christ or verses from Paul and the Psalms. This I do in all respects as children do.”
Luther is saying there that it is good to use the helps that God gives us in order to get ourselves into the right frame to pray. The Bible itself, or the prayers and creeds that have been formulated by the church in the past, can help us to focus our minds for prayer even if we begin by just repeating them to ourselves “as children do”.
Luther then goes on to illustrate how he might use the Lord’s Prayer or the Ten Commandments as a springboard into prayer. He would recite a line and then expand on it in his prayer to God with a free and open heart that is fully engaged with God’s truth. He writes, “In this way I have often learned more in one prayer than I have been able to get out of much reading and reflection.” Luther would also do the same with the Creed or parts of Scripture. Since the aim is to pray, Luther advises that we don’t bite off more than we can chew “lest your spirit become weary.” He writes, “it is sufficient if you can find a portion, even a small portion, from which you can strike a spark in your heart.”
In short, Luther’s answer to a cold prayer-life is for a person to use the familiar formulations of God’s truth “and with such flint strike fire in his heart.”
But this raises questions for me: Do Christians these days know any familiar formulations of Bible truth? Is our church doing enough to get key parts of Scripture or formulations of the Christian faith into people’s heads?
People need to go away from church with Bible-truth ringing in their ears so that they can recall it and apply it in their own relationship with God. Clearly, the sermons in our church are aimed at teaching and exhorting people from the Bible. If the sermon is good enough and a person listens well, that person will be able to remember and apply the teaching later on. However, the other parts of our church services ought to minister the truth to people also.
These days our church services contain less liturgy (set prayers, creeds and readings). This development has both pros and cons. One result of less liturgy is that our songs assume a more important role in drumming truth into people’s heads. The church has long recognised the power of music and rhythm to help people remember truth. Since so many of us remember the specific words of songs better than quotes from sermons or Scripture, it is crucial that our church songs are very carefully selected for content. If the songs are good, we might all go away and use what we remember of those songs to “warm up” our private prayers with truth. But if our songs are shallow, they’re not much good for anything except some nice music during church.
We each need all the help we can in our individual relationships with God. Church has an important part to play in equipping people for relating to God by teaching the truth in memorable ways.
Steve
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