5th May 2024
Finding our Way to Pray
"Lord, teach us to pray" the disciples ask Jesus in Luke 11. In response, Jesus gives them three things - the Lord's Prayer, a story about persistence in prayer, and some vivid images of the good things God longs to give to his children when we ask him.
From the beginning of our Christian lives, we know that prayer is a good thing. We know it is something we should do; it is something we want to do, and many of us can tell stories of how our prayers are being and have been answered. And yet, prayer is also something that worries us. How should I pray? Am I praying enough? What words do I need to use?
Acts 1 tells us that, for ten days between the day Jesus ascended into heaven and the day that God sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, around 120 disciples gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem where they "joined together constantly in prayer" (v14). And so these ten days, this year between 9th and 19th May, are a good time for us to focus on prayer as a church community, along with the Church of England and the wider global church through what has become known as Thy Kingdom Come.
The good news is that prayer is not about special words in special language. It doesn't have to be done in church, in a service. Contrary to popular believe, the vicar's prayers are no better than anybody else's (in fact they are probably a great deal less good than those of many of our church community!). All of us can pray, because prayer is simply about being in relationship with God. It's a conversation - we talk and we listen to what God says to us in reply. We can express our prayers out loud, or in silence. We can pray with our imaginations or with our creativity. We can pray noisily with lots of movement, or in stillness. We can pray at any age, in any place, at any time, about anything.
Here at HTSJ, we are inviting you during these ten days between Ascension and Pentecost to "find your way to pray". Because, as Pete Greig, founder of 24-7 Prayer, has said, there's no mystery to becoming a great prayer. "If you want to get better at prayer - practise!"
