Prayer

From Foster's "Prayer" book that I've been reading:

Before proceeding, I must offer a caution. We should not overstate the place of prayer in the formation of "holy habits". Prayer is by itself severly limited in the good it can accomplish. It is only a part--albeit an important part--of a much larger whole.

Dallas Willard speaks of the three major areas god uses in our continuing transformation--a "golden triangle" of formation, if you will. The first area is the classical disciplin of the spiritual life: solitude, fasting, worship, celebration, and the like. The second area is our continual interaction with the movings of the Spirit of God: resistance, disobedience, repentance, submission, faith, obedience, and more. The third major area is the patient endurance God develops in us by means of the various frustrations, trials, and temptations we face daily.

Therefore, we must never isolate prayer from the rest of Christian devotion and claim more for it than god intended. No, instead we want to see the dynamic interaction of prayer in concert with an overall spiritual life.

...

Solitude is the first and most foundational of these approaches. "Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life," writes Henri Nouwen. The reason for this is simple to see: by means of solitude God frees us from our bondage to people and our own inner compulsions.

To enter solitude, we must disregard what others think of us. Who will understand this call? Even our closest friends will see it as a waste of precious time and rather self-centered. But, oh the liberty that is released in our hearts when we let go of the opinions of others! The less we are mesmerized by human voices, the more we are able to hear the Divine Voice. The less we are manipulated by the expectations of others, the more we are open to the expectations of God.

In solitude, however, we die not only to others but also to ourselves. To be sure, at first we thought solitude was a way to recharge our batteries in order to enter life's many competitions with new vigor and strength. In time, however, we find that solidtude gives us power not to win the rat race but to ignore the rat race altogther. Slowly, we find ourselves letting go of our inner compulsions to acquire more wealth than we need, look more youthful than we are, attain more status than is wise. In the stillness, our false, busy selves are unmasked and seen for the imposters they truly are.

I love the way Foster writes. At A&M, I used to go up to church late at night for my moments of solitude. I'll always remember that wooden cross, with the blue and green lights. Oh, the countless prayers I offered up to God at the foot of that cross over the years... Up here in Maryland, I have to be more creative in finding a place of solitude to reflect and pray. But that's a good thing, because it reminds me that God is in every moment and every location. "For I am with you always, to the very end of the age." -- Matthew 28:20