I'm DJ and this is foundrycast changing your commutes since 2005 Well welcome to foundrycast chat books here with Allison solves. It's about a hey, I'm glad to be here as always I'm enjoying your ass people always there. I know the sickness or either that or my smoking problem is making itself known Yeah, yeah, it's a lesson such a change bunker, you know It's giving me laugh. Yeah, so okay back to the actual content of the church podcast podcast now So we're jumping into a conversation today about prayer and we started our level up series last weekend And I shared how the introduction beginning of the book and how Paul just framed his his wishes for the church in Colossa With prayer and talked about prayer and our bottom line for Sunday was prayer ports of foundation of the Christian life that prayer is this energizing behavior that always helps us level up always helps us expand our vision food Jesus is for us but also in the world and decided we can have a conversation about prayer because I'm pretty confusing thing Really?
Yeah, it definitely can be a thing or think people don't know what to do it They don't feel like they're know how to do it and so it just becomes a barrier rather than a gift of the Christian life Yeah, it's like full disclosure like there's I've said this a lot of places before but there's defaults Everybody has like just defaults they go to in spiritual disciplines and prayer is not one of mine. I mean, it's I think I think a lot of times mean you play good cop bad cop with prayer Well, not as far I mean your default is you know being in the word and so that's you know different people have different things I know we just we just before but Allison actually is that kind of one of your defaults isn't it? It has been I think I've grown into it, but I also think it's it's a default for me for sure Yeah, I've grown into I've grown into it, but it's just not and we realize that it's other folks So we kind of want to jump in have a quick conversation today about two different things kind of one kind of just Alice and talk about prayer Since it is a default for her and then also we're gonna talk about some practical prayer help So lots of this kind of has helped me over the last five six years become a more natural prayer And so so Allison talk to us about prayer Oh, like you just said about prayer being sort of a we said somebody being an energizing reality or an energizing activity of our faith And I think that's one thing about prayer as you start thinking about it But also practicing it or at least as I have is it's not always just about the words that we say it's more about this Stance before God. It's our whole bringing our whole selves before God And of course we can do that in worship through song we can do that through engaging scriptures But in prayer there's this unique sort of coming before God and that sometimes that includes words and sometimes it doesn't it's really a all-encompassing subject I mean, there's more books than you can imagine on prayer from the beginning of the church I mean, yeah, right over there on the shelf the idiots got a prayer there you go I mean from that to the most profound Yeah, and prayers are amazing thing because it's one thing that is necessary to do as individuals in our prayer life But also so not necessary for the life of the church I mean if you think about worship how much time in worship do we spend in prayer and how that that forms us and shapes us as a community How it as you talked about chat last weekend how it's our it's our hope it pushes I what you said last week prayers that which pushes us into the future as as individuals and and as the church and that was Straighty and bounds well there you go more.
Yeah, I'd greatly appreciated that and for me I'm a I'm a late until like one of my favorite things with prayer is is writing prayer and being able to use a language And that's something that I personally enjoy to articulate sort of the full stretch of the Christian life whether that's Celebration or Thanksgiving or lament or specific petitions or intercessions of myself or those people who I find myself around and in community With that's that's a fun and a thing that challenges me to go deeper in my faith. So yeah Well, I mean just prayer no prayer in general I think it's it's always such a gift to be in places to hear other people pray in the way the other people pray I know praying out loud as a lot of people like to say or praying You know in public or before people is a point of like major Anxiety for for a lot of folks and it certainly used to be that way for me until of course I picked a vacation where that was a you know necessary in a lot of different contexts You know kind of need to do it but but just to be able to encounter people and to be present with people as they bring themselves and bring the community With or with before God and somebody once told me in speaking about that anxiety about praying in public say pray as you can Don't pray as you can't because it's you know It's not it's not always about the exact words that that we use but it's about Engaging our Lord who is indeed present present with yes well. It's something that you know for me prayer so much of it's like in some ways prayer is it's like magic time travel. Yeah Like not it's this way to and you kind of get it you have to get out of the oh crap I'm in trouble mode Because I mean that's completely valid in prayer, but like that's the if that's all we're engaging in prayer We're missing out on like 99% of what's actually going on because there's something about the fact how through prayer You kind of declare I'm gonna be in a different world right and I'm gonna believe in that different world And I'm gonna push things from that different world forward into reality and I'm gonna choose to exist Inside of that world while I'm living here in this it's just it's it's like I fully expect one day for like really smart scientists To be able to actually quantify a lot of religious and spiritual experience and for prayer to be seen as a I know This is like content fully crazy town.
Yeah, but it's just like I think prayers interdimensional. Yeah And it's not just this thing that we do that calms our heart It's this this is a communication with the divine and the more we really reflect on that the more is gonna change the content Of how we pray and what we pray and when we pray and what that looks like Yeah, what is the reality that prayer indeed? It's not just communication but changes things. Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, it's not we have the ability to change God's mind But it's a fact that God deeply deeply deep with his plan all along is to engage us in what he is doing and prayer It's just so it's so complicated.
It's too complicated for a 15 minute podcast to jump into but it's just this thing This is a consistent witness to the desire for God to engage with his people And for us to conform our minds to what his will is for us to change that direction But also for God to see the deep desire for his people for redemption While we were waiting for full and final redemption, right? And so that's it so Practical stuff on prayer sure you want to go back and forth on this? Sure go for it. Okay.
I'll be kickoff First book first thing is Ian bounds book on prayer his is collected works on prayer. He wrote like eight books He's dead all the best books written by dead people. I think There's like it's like 600 pages, but each chapter is like three or four pages And so it's like crazy. You don't read unless you want to get yourself in trouble Like you're gonna feel guilty.
You're gonna feel guilty and you're gonna be like I'm crazy enough to do this When you read it so So there's also the book the name prayer in it called the book of common prayer and it's the book of Liturgy and prayers of the church of England or the Anglican church and almost of these prayers It's like compilation and so these prayers go back to the very beginning of our church and some of them in fact are very modern But yeah, it's a great well There's the month long cycle for the Psalms right I use that every morning every evening right like once a month You would pray through the entire book of Psalms and it's just kind of crazy We're gonna realize how many folks across the world are in a rhythm of praying the Psalms and how long the church has been committed to the praying rhythm And that also so many prayers for specific occasions, you know for for birth and for death and for you know Things as simple as moving into a new house or moving to a new place. Yeah, yeah prayer for the occasions of our lives I think are important and you know for somebody who was really really really against written prayer for a long time I will I really enjoy it because a there's two things One you're not having to think like we're at the point where you really can't think You know lean on something else you wait you're leaning on something else and then second the fact of just the kid I mean the fancy language the community of science piece of it is just What was it you said one time? Oh man? I forgot?
It was real dirty super nerdy But that that that piece of you know I'm praying prayers that have been said by people for a very long time and that the people of God have put their hopes in these words for Hundreds of years and have used them in different situations and just like to the last thing with the BCP book of Common Prayer is When you're really mad Are you or in a situation where you feel and it's like a long I may be a longer season of slight maybe there's something about praying the Psalms Oh, yeah, because it feels extreme and not just a book of a prayer just as outlined for you already So where it first you feel like somewhat just fact It's like he burning coals upon my enemies heads and then it may be launches into a prayer for you realize because I deserve to have Coles heat go my own head. Yeah, to where I mean it gives you that space to be pissed off Yeah, but it also reminds you of of who you are and of if we're gonna be if you're if you're mad enough to ask God To go take care of somebody for you. You also have to be in a moment of extreme self realization Does that make sense? Oh, it totally does It gives voice to the sort of full stretch of a human emotion But it always keeps it in relation to God and so it's you know anger and being super mad about something or someone is acceptable As long as it's in you know in relation to God.
Okay, so mine next one. Yeah, Richard Foster's book on prayer. Oh, yeah That's a good one to take that one from me. No, no, no And it's just it's just across the gamut just the whole nine yards.
Mm-hmm. Good stuff I mean, there's just a ton there's just a ton of written resources of I mean Million dollar word, you know and sort of our mainline traditions, you know, Bruegaman Walter Bruegaman and all his which I can spell Which you can spell it's a really it's a tough one. He has a ton of written things that are just I mean They're very like poetic and kind of can get real lofty But they also like hit the nail on the head a lot of times and they're really Convicting and so I turn to those quite a bit. Yeah.
Um, I'm a big fan of keeping a prayer notebook Always have mine with me. That's all because I got I realized that someone asked me to pray for them And you say I will and if you forget about it, you're lying to them. Mm-hmm, and so I just write it down now That's always with me. Yep.
Tell me adopt that practice. Yeah, it's a big thing. What you got else? Um Let me see just so I mean so much different different stuff.
I mean praying we were talked about the Psalms But I think praying with scripture using scripture just as a resource It doesn't always you know, I don't always have to go mine scripture, but you can just offer it up to God in prayer and because a lot of Scripture, I mean much as we talked about on Sunday is in fact in prayer form Yeah, that's a gift to you know, I think my last one would be I'm a big fan of the Orthodox the convo-chino tradition of the their prayer rope, which is Unlike and alike a rosary, but then all of them are tied in decades And so I got a 59 Orthodox prayer rope and so it's designed to And the Eastern Orthodox monastic tradition for them to count their the count the repetition of saying to Jesus prayer Which is a prayer that early church Lord Jesus Christ, and I got a mercy on the center and they would try to they would like their their monastic Mentors there's a fancy word for them sure Um would give them like okay, you're simons to pray 5,000 prayers today and it wasn't to like it wasn't some idea of Okay, you're super holy because you prayed this prayer 5,000 times It was this training to always be praying that prayer as they breathed in and out and the goal was to be able to accomplish more and more and more Tasks more complicated tasks while being able to pray and take Paul's admonition of praying without ceasing seriously Yes, and so that's a that's a I'm a big fan of that right. I mean another conversation That's probably too extensive for a podcast. It's this short is when you know when activity or when bits of life become prayer itself Yeah, that's something I can also yeah It's pretty fascinating. There's you know, there's monks they would talk about the prayer You know the activity of peeling potatoes or just keeping up the yeah, you know keeping up this for the daily activities of life those things we become mundane as a way of communication and The whole brother Lawrence to practice the presence of God trust and I used to work for somebody who I can't remember what it was I Think he realized that the steps going up to his office this was as Barry is a jade Walt and The steps leading up to the chapel to seminers two flights And I can't remember however many steps there were to the middle flight was the same number of the fruits of the spirit And so he would always recite that verse twice going to his office from the bottom floor and like every time that whole building was always those flights and so I'm like I'm not joking like one time I had to go from the basement to the fourth floor with him And I had to say the verse with him eight times he made me and it's just like that's like a sting of stairs And just you know these rhythms and repetitions in life.
So well hopefully we've demystified slash D Scarified We can do that we can do that we just have a conversation on prayer today We hope that this has been helpful and you can go to we are foundry.com Slash level up for more resources from the series and for this podcast or the sermon podcasts and more stuff that we Resource you with over there. So we will check you next time