Prayer is one of the very few observed practices which finds a place in nearly all forms of human religion.
For Christians prayer happens to be one of the most significant things that we do. Though nearly every Christian prays, nearly every Christian likely wishes they prayed more, prayed better, or prayed differently.
It is ludicrous for me to think I can say something substantial about prayer through one simple blog post. However, here we are…
The Apostle Paul in one of his earliest letters writes, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
He goes on to include some additional commands: “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, abstain from evil, hold fast what is good” (vv. 19-22).
If the Thessalonian believers follow such commands, the God of peace, he says, will “sanctify you completely, keeping your whole spirit, soul, and body blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul, in other words, encourages a set of habits which if practiced consistently and sincerely will lead to holiness (and thus wholeness). Among such habits is prayer, specifically what has been called “unceasing prayer.”
In the famous Sayings of the Desert Fathers & Mothers we read, “The brothers asked Agatho, ‘Abba, which virtue in our way of life needs most effort to acquire?’ He said to them, ‘Nothing needs so much effort as prayer. All other efforts in a religious life have room for a measure of rest. But we need to pray till our dying breath. That is the great struggle.’”
Christians intent upon reading the Bible literally have had a difficult time with unceasing prayer. Some monks in antiquity were so insistent about praying at all times that they would enlist others to pray on their behalf while they slept, ate, or did other things which preclude prayer.
If prayer is only understood as a form of speech (audible or inaudible) directed toward God, unceasing prayer would mean unceasing speech, which, in my view, leaves little room for anything else!
Based on a recent book by Norman Wirzba (Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land) I would like to suggest another way of thinking about unceasing prayer: prayer not only as a deliberate practice but as a distinct (and daily) way of being in the world.
Wirzba writes, “What I want to suggest is that prayer is fundamentally an embodied and affective posture that, by opening people to the presence of God, also positions people to be available to each other in God honoring ways.”
Praying, like Sabbath-observance according to Wirzba, is not only a discrete, observable practice (which one does at this or that time) but is an alternative way of being in the world, a different posture, perspective, and lifestyle.
He begins with the topic of attention and the role prayer plays in reorienting our life outlook. “Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer,” writes Simone Weil (emphasis added), which suggests that prayer –turning one’s thoughts toward God– both orients and shapes how we attend to the world as a whole.
“Persons who pray,” writes Wirzba, “perceive the world differently than those who do not pray.” Such persons “may not provide a swath of new, scientifically verifiable facts about the world, but they invite others to experience the world as imbued with divine significance.”
To “pray without ceasing” is to turn one’s thoughts toward God in such a way and with such frequency that one’s thoughts and one’s outlook become God’s.
To pray this way is to place our attention, desires, and positions before the chastening presence of God. It’s to allow God to refashion our consciousness such that His consciousness becomes ours.
Toward this end, Wirzba explores the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13 / Luke 11:2-4) which enables disciples to attend (to God and the world) with Jesus. He focuses especially on three clauses: (1) “Your kingdom come…”; (2) “Give us this day…”; (3) “Forgive us our debts...”
“To say your, ‘Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,’ is to want existing ways of being in the world which lead to division, degradation, and death, to be reformed so that they witness to the Godly ways of being that nurture, heal, and liberate life” (Wirzba).
“To call upon heaven,” he says, “is not to long to get to another location, but to long for sinful ways of thinking and living to be defeated so God's ways of mercy and justice become a reality here and now.”
To pray, “Your kingdom come,” is to take one’s awareness of Earth’s kingdoms, with all their imperfections and injustices, and submit them to God’s hand which fashions from that awareness something new.
To pray, “Your kingdom come,” is to ask God to give us a glimpse of His heavenly reality such that we perceive our world differently because we’re seeing it through God’s eyes.
As we see clearly what God’s desired world is, we can work together to transform our current world into the image of God’s kingdom. That’s what it means to say, “Your kingdom come.”
“To say, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ is not a simple matter,” writes Wirzba, “especially for people who have been trained to purchase bread as a commodity.”
“Bread does not have to be,” he writes. “Its existence should not be taken for granted. Bread is but one nurturing and delectable instance of a world that reflects the God who gives life.”
“Give us this day our daily bread,” was originally uttered by Jewish Galilean peasants who struggled to procure enough bread for their families daily. For those who do not live with such food insecurity it’s to pray for bread –which stands for all food and drink– to be transformed in our awareness, from something we take for granted and perhaps hoard, to something we receive as a gift.
Thanking God for the food we eat time and again before meals conditions our minds and hearts to think of food not as something we secure or purchase, but as something we receive always by the hand of God.
Someone who does not ‘pray their way into’ such an awareness may think of bread differently, and since food assumes such a prominent role in our culture and lives, such a difference may be considerable.
“To say, ‘Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors,’ is to recognize that life is undermined by forms of indebtedness which either frustrate the flows of receiving and giving or deny that life is a gift meant to be shared with others” (Wirzba).
“Jesus’s prayer alerts us to the fact that indebtedness creates forms of bondage which prevent people from being fully present and attentive to each other. This is why people need to be released from the oppression that indebtedness creates” (Wirzba).
In the original context economic realities were primarily in view. Creditors oppressed peasant borrowers forcing them into ever deeper forms of debt bondage. Such indebtedness, however, can take a variety of forms in our communities today: debts of power, influence, personality, offense, etc.
When certain persons exercise dominance in a community and thus stifle the contributions of others, a situation of indebtedness is produced which prevents the full flourishing of all in the group. When grudges are held, offenses are unresolved, tension is allowed to linger, possibilities for life and flourishing are threatened.
To pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” is to ask God to transform our habits and life such that debt of any kind is allowed no place in our community.
Wirzba concludes his chapter as follows, “We can now see why prayer is an unceasing and daily way of being, and a set of practical habits that reorient people in their places and communities so that the love of God might move more freely through them. At its core, prayer is the daily action whereby people open themselves to receiving the love of God and letting it become operational within.”
To return to the Apostle Paul: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
If prayer is not just speech directed toward God but is conceived as submitting one’s attention and outlook toward God’s chastening influence, then Paul’s command becomes slightly more realistic.
To “pray without ceasing” is to move into the habit of submitting one’s perception consistently to God’s shaping hand. Over time as we pray and pray and pray, our lives become living prayers, and our thoughts and attention become God’s.
Jonah Bissell
Pastor