While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and “sinners”? On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I … [Read more...] about Going to the Doctor as Prayer

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power… to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3: 17-19 As we fall like a seed into the ground and die to our self-reliance and self-serving ways, the true life God created in us is … [Read more...] about Receiving the Fullness of God as Prayer

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12:24 Prayer awakens us. Prayer is a source of conscious contact with the One who is Life itself. So how is it that prayer is also the experience of dying? What might it mean that prayer leads us to fall, like a kernel of wheat, into the … [Read more...] about Dying as Prayer

Therefore, I urge you…in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God— this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 Prayer is an act … [Read more...] about Entrusting All to God as Prayer

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 Prayer, by its nature, moves us away from our reliance on ourselves and towards reliance on God. This text from Proverbs instructs us in this basic wisdom. “Trust in the Lord,” it says. Rely on God, lean on God, turn to God for … [Read more...] about Giving up Self-Reliance as Prayer

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  John 15:9 We have all watched loving adults bend low or kneel down, making themselves small so they can be face-to-face with a child.  Parents do this instinctively out of a desire to connect and be present to the child.  Out of loving desire to relate to small ones, big people make themselves temporarily small. Our … [Read more...] about Encountering the Love of God in Jesus

My beloved spoke, and said to me: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo. the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land…My beloved is mine and I am his. Song of Solomon 2:10-12,16 Prayer is intimacy with God. Our Maker, our God, seeks intimacy with us. Intimacy … [Read more...] about Knowing Intimacy with God as Prayer