The Prayer of the Heart
In my continuing amazement with this little book "The Way of the Heart," I thought I would take some time this week and journal on the place of prayer in the place of interior devoition. Prayer is the key to a deeper relationship with the Lord, but often it's left for only a select few to "do." But in this hour God is raising up wise virgins in the body of Christ who are storing up oil for their Bridegroom's return (Matthew 25:1-13). Prayer is one of the means that we use to cultivate our intimacy with the coming Bridegroom.
Nouwen spends the third section of his book, after discussing the necessity of solitude and silence, turning to prayer. One of the major distinctions that Nouwen makes is that there are two types of prayer. One type of prayer is the prayer of the mind. The prayer of the mind is where we pray with our intellect. Praying from our intellect has a negative outcome in our lives. We begin to think of prayer as an intellectual chore that we must do daily. And because it becomes an intellectual chore we cherish it as much as we do figuring out our checkbook or reading a college text book. We walk away from having done it without an exchange occuring between us and Heaven. Because the prayer of the mind is a function of the intellect, we often walk away bored with God. We remain unfascinated by God and the result is a thousand other things capture our attention.
But for Nouwen (and for me) the answer to regaining a prayer life begins when we discover the prayer of the heart. The desert fathers (who are the subject of "The Way of the Heart," you really gotta read this book!) believed that there was a place in prayer where you connected with the Spirit of God in a way that gave you rest.
Most of us believe that this pursuit of more of the Spirit of God is an external journey. What I mean is that to gain more in the Lord we must receive the Spirit of God coming out of Heaven and resting on us. But the Bible speaks frequently about "Christ within" which is our hope of Glory (Colossians 1:27, 1 Peter 1:11). The pursuit for more of Jesus is an internal journey to lay hold of Christ within. This was the conviction of the Apostle Paul (cf. Ephesians 3:14-20), the desert Fathers, and virtually every devotional master in the centuries since.
It is the search for Christ within that the prayer of the heart is concerned with. Nouwen writes, "By its very nature such prayer transforms our whole being into Christ precisely because it opens the eyes of our soul to the truth of ourselves as well as to the truth of God. In our heart we come to see ourselves as sinners embraced by the mercy of God...It unmasks the many illusions about ourselves and about God and leads us into the true relationship of the sinner to the merciful God. This truth is what gives us the rest of [the prayer of the heart]."
The practice of this prayer of the heart is simple and requires little mental gymnastics. The Desert Fathers discourage us from using too many words. John Climacus says, "Wordiness in prayer often subjects the mind to fantasy and dissipation; single words of their very nature tend to concentrate the mind. When you find satisfaction or compunction in a certain word of your prayer, stop at that point." As Nouwen says, "The quiet repitition of a single word can help us descend with the mind into the heart...this way of simple prayer, when we are faithful to practice it at regular times, slowly leads us to an experience of rest and opens us to God's active presence."
I discovered the way into this method of prayer by accident. I wasn't trying to look for a way of prayer, I was just trying to seek God with a group spending time in corporate interecession. While the worship was going, I began to pray in tongues and ask Jesus to visit us with short, one or two word prayers. And as I continued doing this, I begin to sense the presence of God rise in my soul. He was visiting me. What excited me was that this works anywhere! I can pray like this at work or while I'm shopping, and as I do the Spirit of God comes and meets me.
While this method of prayer is simple, it does require time. Twenty or thirty minutes will work. Spend time praying in the Spirit first, focusing on Jesus. Most find it helpful to pray actual words, and I would suggest using words in Scripture. "The Lord is my Shepherd," from Psalm 23 is a great start, but whatever scripture is relevant to your spiritual condition will work. As you do, pay attention to what the Spirit is doing inside of you. Eventually you'll notice the Lord leading you in various ways. Visions, dreams, and the prophetic will become more common place in your life. Fascination with God will increase and the pleasures and toys of this world gain less and less of a hold on you.
The thing I'm most excited about as I've been learning this discipline of prayer is that I'm becoming a lover of the presence of God. Instead of having to spend time in prayer, I'm finding myself spontaneously entering into the presence of God throughout the rest of the day. My hunger and thirst for the presence of God is returning, and my soul really is beginning to enter into the rest.
But this journey isn't just for me, its for everyone. We're all called to live fascinated and alive in God. Make it your goal, even this week, to steal away and spend time with the Father, just as Jesus did. Don't let the business of the season steal your heart away from the purposes of eternity. And believe this is for you. As you sit before Him, your heart will be changed.
Nouwen spends the third section of his book, after discussing the necessity of solitude and silence, turning to prayer. One of the major distinctions that Nouwen makes is that there are two types of prayer. One type of prayer is the prayer of the mind. The prayer of the mind is where we pray with our intellect. Praying from our intellect has a negative outcome in our lives. We begin to think of prayer as an intellectual chore that we must do daily. And because it becomes an intellectual chore we cherish it as much as we do figuring out our checkbook or reading a college text book. We walk away from having done it without an exchange occuring between us and Heaven. Because the prayer of the mind is a function of the intellect, we often walk away bored with God. We remain unfascinated by God and the result is a thousand other things capture our attention.
But for Nouwen (and for me) the answer to regaining a prayer life begins when we discover the prayer of the heart. The desert fathers (who are the subject of "The Way of the Heart," you really gotta read this book!) believed that there was a place in prayer where you connected with the Spirit of God in a way that gave you rest.
Most of us believe that this pursuit of more of the Spirit of God is an external journey. What I mean is that to gain more in the Lord we must receive the Spirit of God coming out of Heaven and resting on us. But the Bible speaks frequently about "Christ within" which is our hope of Glory (Colossians 1:27, 1 Peter 1:11). The pursuit for more of Jesus is an internal journey to lay hold of Christ within. This was the conviction of the Apostle Paul (cf. Ephesians 3:14-20), the desert Fathers, and virtually every devotional master in the centuries since.
It is the search for Christ within that the prayer of the heart is concerned with. Nouwen writes, "By its very nature such prayer transforms our whole being into Christ precisely because it opens the eyes of our soul to the truth of ourselves as well as to the truth of God. In our heart we come to see ourselves as sinners embraced by the mercy of God...It unmasks the many illusions about ourselves and about God and leads us into the true relationship of the sinner to the merciful God. This truth is what gives us the rest of [the prayer of the heart]."
The practice of this prayer of the heart is simple and requires little mental gymnastics. The Desert Fathers discourage us from using too many words. John Climacus says, "Wordiness in prayer often subjects the mind to fantasy and dissipation; single words of their very nature tend to concentrate the mind. When you find satisfaction or compunction in a certain word of your prayer, stop at that point." As Nouwen says, "The quiet repitition of a single word can help us descend with the mind into the heart...this way of simple prayer, when we are faithful to practice it at regular times, slowly leads us to an experience of rest and opens us to God's active presence."
I discovered the way into this method of prayer by accident. I wasn't trying to look for a way of prayer, I was just trying to seek God with a group spending time in corporate interecession. While the worship was going, I began to pray in tongues and ask Jesus to visit us with short, one or two word prayers. And as I continued doing this, I begin to sense the presence of God rise in my soul. He was visiting me. What excited me was that this works anywhere! I can pray like this at work or while I'm shopping, and as I do the Spirit of God comes and meets me.
While this method of prayer is simple, it does require time. Twenty or thirty minutes will work. Spend time praying in the Spirit first, focusing on Jesus. Most find it helpful to pray actual words, and I would suggest using words in Scripture. "The Lord is my Shepherd," from Psalm 23 is a great start, but whatever scripture is relevant to your spiritual condition will work. As you do, pay attention to what the Spirit is doing inside of you. Eventually you'll notice the Lord leading you in various ways. Visions, dreams, and the prophetic will become more common place in your life. Fascination with God will increase and the pleasures and toys of this world gain less and less of a hold on you.
The thing I'm most excited about as I've been learning this discipline of prayer is that I'm becoming a lover of the presence of God. Instead of having to spend time in prayer, I'm finding myself spontaneously entering into the presence of God throughout the rest of the day. My hunger and thirst for the presence of God is returning, and my soul really is beginning to enter into the rest.
But this journey isn't just for me, its for everyone. We're all called to live fascinated and alive in God. Make it your goal, even this week, to steal away and spend time with the Father, just as Jesus did. Don't let the business of the season steal your heart away from the purposes of eternity. And believe this is for you. As you sit before Him, your heart will be changed.
posted by Travis at 3:52 PM
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