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being born again, encouragement, experience, God's guidance, God's love, God's voice, inspiration, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther, Michael Clark, prayer, rest, Søren Kierkegaard, Teresa of Ávila, The Lord's Prayer
Entering the Promised Haven
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)
This is another entry Michael Clark and I wrote together which springs from our own experiences with prayer and its effects on our soul and spirit.
It has been for three days now that I, Susanne, wanted to write a blog post about prayer. But since I had neither time nor inspiration to do so, I only gathered a few quotes on prayer yesterday in the late evening. Afterwards I shared these quotes with Michael and we prayed about writing together about how our times alone with God affect us. We realized that be both usually wake up in the flesh and urgently need to pray in order to feel God’s presence in our life again. Michael made an observation I really liked. He said, “I need to pray first thing or my day is trashed.” Yes, indeed! Here are the quotes that sprang somehow out on me. 😉
To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. – Martin Luther
Prayer is […] a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart…Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening. – Mahatma Gandhi
Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love. – Teresa of Ávila
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays. – Søren Kierkegaard
Real prayer is an act of love. We spend time with those whom we love. Whether we are happy to be with them or we are hurting and calling out to them for help, it is still an act that comes from the bond of love! But when we were Catholics, they tried to get us to pray “canned prayers,” memorized and sanitized words that would not offend God. I, Michael, even had to memorize prayers in Latin that I had no clue what they meant! Prayers that come from the mind or heart of another are not from our hearts and as a result Jesus called them vain (empty) repetition.
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Mt 6:6-8 ESV)
You know what comes next? The following verses introduce The Lord’s Prayer. Do we really believe that Jesus taught His disciples first to not heap up empty phrases and then commanded them to repeat The Lord’s Prayer again… and again…. and again? In churches it has become a ritual of sorts, together with many other prayers which, spoken for the very first time were surely ALIVE, that is, they initially had God’s breathe in them. But repetition without feeling nudged by God to pray that way is only dead religion. To put it bluntly, it is like reading a phone book in order to get the proper connection without ever using a phone. We might be able to memorize all the numbers and names, but will we ever hear a voice without calling anyone? Of course, it might happen that God uses a pre-formulated prayer, psalm, or hymn and makes them alive to us (even if it is only a word!). However, that does no mean He keeps making the same things alive on every occasion (every Sunday, for example). God is not a God of rituals unless the ritual consists of drawing close to God through prayer as often as possible. 😉
Actually, in a certain sense we as human beings long for rituals in order to feel secure. Whether it is the cup of coffee in the morning, the daily walk with the dog or a phone call with someone whom we love, or if it is a ritual we do not want to share with anyone but with God alone, rituals somehow offer a room of protection for our souls. But on the other hand, here lies a danger as well. As Michael pointed out above, if we give into the temptation to always flee into rituals regarding prayer, we can be sure we won’t meet the Eternal God there. We might meet our “old” habitual feelings there and we might confuse them with God’s real presence, but these feelings are simply something our soul was able to “reproduce”. In fact, that is not God’s doing because God’s ways are always surprising for us. His leading can never be predicted since it is like the wind that “blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (Jn 3:8 ESV)
To me, Susanne, that fact has not always been something I was able to rejoice about since I do not like surprises that much. 😛 But being a Spirit-led and newly born believer changes the heart completely and you cannot delight in rattling out repetitive prayer rituals any longer. Although I pray in the morning, in the evening and in between as far as possible, I never know beforehand what will happen during my prayer times. Will I meet God and/or Jesus? I never know before who will talk with me. One of them? Or both? And what will they say? Or will I enjoy God’s rest and loving embrace without words? Or will the Holy Spirit’s bright light dig out another poorly healed wound in my heart, let me feel the pain once again, and finally heal me after another valley of tears and fears? I do not know. But I do know that God is here. He is here with me and He is there with you. God is closer to us than anyone else on earth. And He loves us more than we can imagine right now, far more than any human being ever could.
Let’s pray, brothers and sisters. He is worth it all and His love makes all the difference in our life. Or in other words (Paul’s),
“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God… “(Rom 15:30, nrs)
Thank you, Susanne for this lovely reminder to take time to communicate with God and Jesus each day. I find that if I pray before I have any interaction with other humans, I am less apt to cave into the whisperings of the devil and will have a lot fewer words that I wish I could shove back into my mouth once I see the hurt that they cause. I also find that my actions are more motivated by the love of God. He really is there with us waiting for us to ask Him for all our needs during each moment of the day. What amazed me was how God even knows about technical things and I often called on His help to troubleshoot computer and electrical circuits that had malfunctioned during my work day before I retired 🙂
As a side note to you men, there is nothing more perplexing to our natural minds than communicating with a woman. In the past I always blamed them for being so different, but in my more recent years I find that without prayer for the wisdom of God, what I say will always be either wrong or taken wrong and I will not understand what they are saying, for most of what they speak is not straight forward and blunt like us guys talk, but hidden in their words. God is love and the language that women most understand is love. We need to always go to Him and seek His help and words if we are to have successful relationships and communication with the women in our lives for they respond to His love.
I had a great aunt in Texas that loved to pray this psalm from her heart each day…
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Ps 19:14, nrs)
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You’re most welcome, Michael! Thanks a lot for your edifying words. 🙂
Your deliberations on the consequences we need to face if we choose to not pray are spot-on. I believe we get more and more sensitive to the hearts of others, the closer we are to the heart of God. And without prayer, we cannot get closer to Him. It is indeed amazing that God is interested in every tiny detail of our lives. He wants to help us all the time – in all things. I often need to remind myself to ask Him regarding “nullities” (in my view) too since to Him everything that concerns us is equally important. Imagine that! 🙄
“Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.” (Lk 12:6-7 KJV)
Aren’t the very hairs of our head a nullity to us somehow? But not to God…. He is truly amazing and wonderful!
Yes, Michael, as a woman I understand the language of love since this is indeed the way how our God who is LOVE loves to communicate with His children. 🙂
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Reblogged this on A Wilderness Voice and commented:
I have never known a person like Susanne Schuberth who prays about everything all day long. Father and Jesus are her best friends. I hope you are touched by our need to pray in her words in this article.
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That was a sweet introduction by you, Michael. Very touching to read for me! Thank you so much for the reblog, my dear brother, and thanks a bunch for inspiring me to write more about my own prayer experiences in our common article. 🐱
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She is like a modern day Brother Lawrence. I have tried that and I am not good at it. I some times just end up talking to my self or practicing what I am going to say to some one else which very very rarely happens or maybe not at all.
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Sister Lawrence says ‘Thank you, Fred!’ XD
No, earnestly, what you said about talking to yourself and practicing what you might be going to say to someone else, I know that too, of course! We are all human and if God does not help us pray, we will end up in despair because our hamster wheels of thoughts can drive us nuts, can’t they? 😛
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom 8:26-27 ESV)
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Susanne, what a timely quote from Romans! I am so glad that we don’t have to get our words all polished and perfect when we talk to our Daddy!
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Yuppers, Michael, we can always be who we are, can’t we? 😉
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Susanne, like the old black man said, “If you ain’t who you is, then you is who you ain’t!” And God calls this hypocrisy or putting on a false face with feigned words like the Pharisees did all the time with Jesus. If He never let them get away with it, how much more His Father? It is better to pray what we really think with Him for He sees our hearts. Once when going through many trials I prayed, “God! I think your whole system sucks!” Nope! He did not strike me dead, either. In fact after many years He finally brought my heart around to seeing the wisdom in how He goes about transforming us from the old Adam into the Last Adam, Jesus Christ.
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Yes, Michael. I do love what that man said!
Hypocrisy is trying to make the old self shine on its own without God’s help. That is always a ridiculous thing to do. We may have doubts and fears, we do not need to trust in God on our own, and we may even get angry with Him. If not, unconditional love does not exist. But you and I know it does, right?
God is not interested in improving our old self, He simply wants to see it DEAD. The new spiritual creation is made in heaven, not on the earth, and it can exclusively come from Him. As long as our old self gets in the way, we cannot shine as bright as Jesus did. But once we step aside and let Him do what He wants to be done, it is finished! Indeed, it is a gift to be born from above!
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Yes, we do, dear heart! Love that is not unconditional is not love at all! “God so loved the world…” NOT “God so loved the select few…”
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Indeed, we are no Calvinists, Michael! XD
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This was very touching and helpful. I always think I pray wrong as I was told by some to pray the lords prayer or some variation of it. Which I will admit never felt right. Although thinking about some of my prayers as of late they have gotten a bit ritualistic. So I thank you again for this post.
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You are welcome, Fred.
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Thank you for your encouraging response. Fred. We only need to do what feels right for us. As we begin to feel uncomfortable with a certain kind of prayer while another person wholeheartedly loves it, that should not disturb us. We are all individuals and God leads us in individual paths although we share the same WAY which is JESUS. Someone once said, “There is only one way that leads to God, but many ways that lead to Jesus.” (Unknown)
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Very nicely worded, Suzanne. I have recently been focused on prayer too, praying about praying. 😉
I hear you about those memorized prayers, spoken by rote and not from the heart. Something that makes me sad however, the Lords prayer used to be spoken so frequently at school, at church, that most young people had it memorized. Today that has been lost and few know it anymore. I think we’ve done a disservice to the kids by allowing that to fade away. There are some good things about the structure of that prayer. I should probably just blog about it to avoid cluttering up your blog.
You are on such a sweet walk with the, Lord. I love to read your words.
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Praying about praying is nice. I like that, Gabrielle. 🙂
Yes, I think I know what you mean about the loss of memorized prayers today. I did not speak up against this, I only wanted to hint to the danger of thinking memorized prayers were all that God had in store for us. One might say they are the very beginning of prayer since I recall having started as a little girl with these things. But very soon I wanted to talk with God “normally” and I am glad that it works, still… even more and better today. 😉
Perhaps you are interested in my take on the beauty of certain pre-formulated prayers I shared with Elisabeth here:
https://enteringthepromisedland.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/lets-pray/#comment-13718.
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Ah, yes, very nice response in that thread, Susanne. Some people are comforted by tradition, by those familiar rituals.
You are quite right, however, to limit God to only our memorized prayers would be a tragedy. I believe He desires intimacy, a close personal relationship with each of us.
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Yup! Well said, Gabrielle. ⭐
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as i grew older i understood these catholic prayers more so and see the beauty in the recitation of them and now see that the meditation in them were like mantra’s. My grandmother would sit and pray for such length of time and when she finished she was more in a blissful state and remained that way. It was her love of devotion in prayer. She lived till 92. I often look at the words of these prayers and see a true devotion in God, nothing else. It is the study of language. God gave us language as well as inspired word. Prayers are that in complete unity. Each word reflects that unity that ties us into our Lord our Creator. I too when younger went to a parochial school, and didn’t have a great education in religion, but it did provide some base foundation which led me more to see , coming from an eastern orthodox family there is so much beauty we don’t see when young because we are being formed by God’s hands and as we get older the molding continues and we become finer in prayer. Amen
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Yes, there are truly beautiful Catholic prayers, Elisabeth. No doubt about that! If someone loves beauty, they are surely drawn to (old) Catholic church buildings too. There is indeed a lot of beauty I found there as well.
But the most beautiful treasure in Catholic circles for me were the mystics who jotted down their personal experiences with God’s love and described how easy our prayers basically could be if we indeed had come into an intimate love relationship with God and Jesus as the lover(s) of our souls. I do believe that your grandmom felt the truth of what was not distinctly spoken in those words she recited and that might have been the reason that she experienced a blissful state. As a singer and piano player myself, I have known these blissful experiences too. However, today I can say they were only a small foretaste of the things to come. As we eventually behold His most beautiful face and enjoy God’s loving embrace, our words finally fade away…
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I just simply like to talk to my Papa and tell Him how I feel and experience His caring response
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Wow! That is great, Ken. The simpler the prayer, the closer to God’s heart we are, I believe.
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I used to write Love letter prayers to God. They came from the heart. I need to get into that practice again. It was personal letters.
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Wowee! Impressive, Stacey!! ⭐
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Thank you Susanne.
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You’re welcome, Stacey. 🙂
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The Lord has taught me the need for complete honesty in prayer. Twice my daughter’s life hung in the balance. Twice I prayed nice little Presbyterian prayers, where I collected myself and got all reverential with the Father. Both times, things just got worse with her, until finally I dropped all the pretense and let God have it … and by it, I mean me – all of me – the real unpretentious me … panicking, deeply angry, hurt, frustrated, disappointed, desperate. I called Him names such that I thought He would strike me dead for it. But I didn’t care; I’d rather be struck dead than lose my daughter and I knew He was the only one who could help.
Both times, God intervened and my daughter was saved. Thirty years later, I still get choked up every time I remember those days and the grace and love of God.
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What a wonderful testimony about God’s love! I so appreciate your honesty, Jack! When we fear to lose our kids, we cannot tear them out of our hearts and God understands that.
He is truly so gracious although we often only see that in hindsight… many years later.
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Wonderful, Jack! I found out that God can take our best shot and still love us!
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Man! That is awesome Jack! Gosh I would always be afraid to get angry with God. Sometimes I just don’t know how anymore. Ever since my ordeal I am at a loss for words. Anyways, I need for you all to pray for me. I need vitality! Wisdom! I had been thinking about you hard Susanne. I reached across the miles and knew you have a very close and divine relationship with our Dear Father. I wondered if you felt my pull, or push. Michael, Susanne, and Jack please please pray for me. I need a sense of direction and uplift. God bless you all.
Love, Stacey
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I have been praying for you, dear Stacey. May the Lord guide you in all things and lift up your troubled heart. Amen.
A close relationship with God is indeed a gift; it is nothing but grace to be loved by Him just as we are and no matter in which condition we approach Him. In fact, I got often mad at God and I remember one time as I yelled at Him as He shortly afterwards cautiously took me into His arms in order to comfort me. As you might imagine, Stacey, that was almost too much for me! Yes, His love is truly UNCONDITIONAL! ❤
Every blessing,
Susanne
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Susanne, your encounters with Jesus and our Father are so wonderful, though I also know how much pain you have suffered as He has done deep surgery on your heart as well. But, no matter what has happened, I know we can say with great gratitude, “It is worth it all!”
Stacey, keep looking up and you will find the direction you seek.
Michael
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Indeed, Michael, no pain, no gain. Not that I ever liked the painful part of that pruning process. But we will see that He is worth it all when He has raised our dead and dry bones to new life, even already here on earth (speaking spiritually).
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Hi Stacey,
When I read your post, the Lord brought to mind 2 scriptures “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46 KJV); and “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” (Matthew 27:50 KJV).
The Greek for “cried” is different in v46 than it is in v50. The Greek for v46 suggests to me something more articulate in that Jesus specifically expressed what He felt: alone, abandoned, forsaken. The Greek for v50 suggests something more primal and guttural – Strong’s dictionary defines it as a scream or shriek.
I hadn’t seen that before tonight, Stacey. Shouting (yelling) at God with a loud voice from the cross, followed by a primal scream at the moment of death; Jesus has shown that it is OK to be honest with God with what we’re feeling.
Perhaps God has given us feelings to help us be honest? Why shield God from our anger, whether we show it to Him or not, He still knows that we’re angry! So to conceal it from Him is dishonest. Does an honest God act upon a dishonest prayer?
Let Him have it – all of you. I will if you will (but you go first!) Grin! 😉
Jack
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I love this, “There is only one way that leads to God, but many ways that lead to Jesus.” (Unknown) Thank you!
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Thank you, Yvonne. I love this quote too. 🙂
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Yes you are all right! Of course I remember what He has said on the cross! YES! Of Course! Because I have felt the same way before! And I have shared this with many people who have said that they have felt abandoned. But to shout out in this house or in this remote area may get the police here in no time. I just got done reading Matthew 10. For me it is encouraging. Because it seems to answer what I needed to hear. And prepare for. I feel better today than in the last few days. In the name of Jesus, Yeshua Almighty God! Who was and is and ever shall be!
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Just for clarification, Stacey, since I have been walking by the spirit, I saw that it is indeed possible to talk with God without opening one’s mouth. When I was angry at him, I never shouted out loud but in my spirit only.
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