Читать книгу Reconnect - David Sherbino - Страница 52

WEEK THREE: Praying the Scriptures

In prayer we are seeking to deepen our relationship with God so that we are aware of his continual presence and sensitive to his working in and though our lives.

However there are those who find prayer not only difficult but also routine, somewhat repetitive and at times boring. Ken Boa states: “The problem with prayer is heightened by the fact that people often succumb either to the extreme of all form and no freedom, or the opposite extreme of all freedom and no form. The first extreme leads to a rote or impersonal approach to prayer, while the second produces an unbalanced and undisciplined prayer life that can degenerate into a litany of one ‘gimmie’ after another”. (1)

Some view prayer as simply talking to God and have learned to pray by reciting what might be termed ‘formula prayers’. Many can recall the well known evening prayer “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take”. There are other ‘formula prayers’ more profound and thoughtful such as the prayer Jesus taught, commonly referred to as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. In addition there are many helpful prayers found in various ‘Prayer Books’. These prayers are valuable and valid forms of prayer which sustained people throughout the years and helped them to deepen their relationship with God.

However if one prays these prayers in a mechanical manner with little attention to what is being said, they become a monologue instead of a heartfelt conversation with God. At this point these prayers have lost touch with the immediacy of personal experience with God and what was once a meaningful expression of a genuine spiritual experience is now a prayer totally detached from life. The prayer is not a response to the presence of God but simply an exercise to be done. If this is our approach to prayer, it is no wonder that our prayer life is routine, repetitive and boring.