Faith Works 2-23-24

Faith Works 2-23-24
Jeff Gill

Lenten spirituality rooted in prayer
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We're already heading past the second week of Lent, and Easter is not that far away on March 31.

Whether you observed Ash Wednesday on Feb. 14 or chose to focus on your Valentine, and even if you don't practice any kind of Lenten disciplines, it's a time of year when people think about prayer.

It's a question I get asked not infrequently: how do you pray? The quick answer is: I talk to God. Like most conversation, I need to listen as well as speak my own mind, and maybe even not talk at all. For the skeptics who ask "listen to who? To what?" This may not be your column. Come back, we'll get to you, I promise.

For those who are into the idea of communing with the divine, for whom a Presence we call God is a reality worth considering, prayer is a primary form of communication. And none of us listens as well as we ought (if you're married, ask your spouse how you do at that).

Along with the practice of "active listening," I have a couple of other pieces of advice for those wanting to improve their prayer lives in this pre-Easter, even Lenten season. First off the bat: the Psalms. Read them. Pray them. Reflect on them as your own expressions to God.

The Psalms can jar, they jolt you. They say things you may not think you are allowed to say to God, but there they are in the literal middle of the Bible, so there you are. If the Psalmist (David or whomever) can say it to God, so can you. But let the Psalms take the lead. Pray the Psalms. They will teach you.

That's recommendation number one. Recommendation number two may seem too obvious, but I think it gets missed. Go to church. Find a faith community congenial to your spiritual journey as it is right now, and dive in.

How does this help you to pray? Well, because the average service is chock full of them, and you don't have to do anything but listen or read or repeat with them, as a guide and a support. Invocations early in many services, intercessions asked for individuals and for the congregation as a whole, common prayers some printed and some just familiar which you'll pick up over a few return visits; there is the usage of Biblical prayer as prayers like the Lord's Prayer (you don't get much more Biblical than that one), or other doxologies or "songs of praise" which come from scripture. Some have a pastoral prayer and if there's communion, prayers over the elements.

These all can teach and model for us what prayer is, if only for others, and should spark in willing hearts more prayer from our own selves. There are books and manuals and video lessons that all talk about spiritual growth and deepening your prayer life, but anyone can start with those two. The prayers that are the Psalms, and praying in worship which you can welcome into your own prayer life the rest of the week. Those alone are a huge boost, a gracious gift offered to anyone who wants to "talk with God" in the form of prayer.

If I were to add a third suggestion, it would just be this. Practice prayer for others. I pray for you, good readers. Some I hear from, enough to know the breadth and diversity of who is out there reading these. And I do pray for you, for your blessing. I think that's good for me to do. It's a practice I recommend to anyone.


Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he knows there's plenty of reasons to pray, and appreciates your prayers for him. Tell him how you pray at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads.