Just imagine how different your life would be if moment by moment you were constantly open to God. Think of how much your experience of yourself, others, and the world would change if you were continuously attuned to the loving presence of God and allowed the life of God to flow into and through you with each breath. Such a life would itself be prayer, for prayer is not simply words that we offer when we speak to God but an opening of our self to God (Introduction to Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer by David Brenner).
Yesterday I wrote about a transforming moment in the life of Jacob, a moment when he stopped manipulating the world around him and other people to his own advantage and began to cast all his confidence upon the promises of God to take care of him on his journey. Most of us live our lives somewhere between being completely closed to God, depending on ourselves and our wits alone, and being tentatively open to the Spirit, tentatively depending on Him to lead and guide us. In his book, Opening to God: Lectio Divinia and Life as Prayer, David Brenner says that opening to God is not a 'moment' but a direction of movement toward full openness. We take a step forward and then quickly pull back again into our own resources, our own strength, for that is what we know and are used to.
We want to be open to the fullness of God within us, but we have many obstacles blocking our capacity to receive the fullness of God: psychological (our fears and unhealed wounds), theological (our distorted views of God), and spiritual (practices that do not bring us life).
The promise of 'being born again' is frightening to many people, for they do not know what that means. But Brenner says if we think of it as 'spiritual awakening,' it might not be so frightening. Unlike religiosity, which can involve just beliefs and practices, spirituality involves a journey from one place to the next. It is not a 'practice or belief;' it is walking a path. And prayer is central to the journey. Prayer leads to transformation. It is the means through which God gains access to our souls. Prayer is the way of opening ourselves to God so that we are touched by Him, awakened, realigned, integrated, and healed. It is a continuing series of conversions whereby we leave our former state and become transformed into a 'new man.'
If we are not open to transformation, we will not pray -- or our prayers will be formal practices that fail to touch our souls. If we are open to the work of God within us, the work of 'making all things new,' as He promised us, we will keep our appointment with God on a daily basis, and we will open ourselves to His work in us. Prayer is not something we do; prayer is what God does in us. We simply allow Him to do His work in us. Paul tells us that God, "working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine" (Eph.3:20). God's work in us is "unimaginably extravagant," in the words of David Brenner.
The question is not 'How do we pray?" but rather, "How does God work in us?" There are so many forms of being open to the work of God in the person who desires to be attentive and responsive to Him. All of life can be prayer when opened to the work of God: Genuine prayer always begins in the heart and is offered by an act of opening our self as we turn toward God....Growth in prayer is learning to open more and more of ourselves to God (Brenner, Chapter 1).
Brenner says that he learned to pray when he was 13, when he learned that prayer could be as simple as speaking, silently or audibly, to God, just as he did to other people. Scripture says that to please God, we must first of all, believe that He exists, and secondly, believe that He rewards those who come to Him (cannot recall the source). And what is our 'reward' for coming to God in prayer -- but that He begins in us His divine work of transformation.
The reason that walking with God on a daily basis is so much fun -- always an adventure and a joy -- is that it is a relationship and a journey. As such, it is never static and never the same. God is He who is alive and acting on my behalf; all He does is good. He cannot do otherwise. To live in a universe where my own limited ideas and resources are all I have is a depressing thought. But to live in a world where I am constantly being called from one hope of glory to the next is a world of joy.
Brenner says that he learned to pray when he was 13, when he learned that prayer could be as simple as speaking, silently or audibly, to God, just as he did to other people. Scripture says that to please God, we must first of all, believe that He exists, and secondly, believe that He rewards those who come to Him (cannot recall the source). And what is our 'reward' for coming to God in prayer -- but that He begins in us His divine work of transformation.
The reason that walking with God on a daily basis is so much fun -- always an adventure and a joy -- is that it is a relationship and a journey. As such, it is never static and never the same. God is He who is alive and acting on my behalf; all He does is good. He cannot do otherwise. To live in a universe where my own limited ideas and resources are all I have is a depressing thought. But to live in a world where I am constantly being called from one hope of glory to the next is a world of joy.
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