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Some muses on praying - part 1

Lately I've been "being confronted" (in a good and grateful way) with my Prayer life.  My sense of prayer has always been a struggle.  While I've grown in it, and love those times to sit with God's word and allow it to form my thoughts, give me insight into my heart, motives, attitude, etc...I knew that my prayers needed to grow much more than they have.

 I started the year off with Tim Keller's devotions on Praying through the Psalms, and his book is on it's way as I take the time to read the Psalms and pray through them...it's a good discipline and while it might sound strange to someone who has never done it, it is a spiritual practice that is as old as the before Jesus walked the earth.

 John Piper recently had an interview with Tim Keller on the practice of prayer...and I want to post some of what that Q&A with him looked like.  I hope it helps you also think about your prayers.

 One more thing before the interview question.  Last night Linda and I watched the movie "War Room". It's a very powerful film because it focuses on the way Prayer enters into our closest relationships - and for many of us it's our Marriage. 
This movie is about a marriage falling apart until a wife takes the initiative to take time to pray - and what I mean is - takes time to sit down with scripture in solitude and let the word of God speak to her as she also speaks to God.  Over time it took her relationships to a completely different level, one that was at first seemingly going to dissolve, but ended up doing just the opposite.  I loved the movie...and I heartily recommend all of you - married or single - to rent it and watch and talk about it...it's powerful.

 NOW...the first of ten posts with a Q & A time with Tim Keller:

Question 1: Prayerlessness

Q:  Among Christians today, how widespread is prayerlessness — and what does that reveal about our spiritual health?
A:  We know from empirical secular studies that everyone in our Western society today has less solitude. There is less and less of our days or our months or our weeks in which we are unplugged, when we are not listening to something or talking to somebody or texting. This is due to the pervasiveness of social media, the Internet, and various sorts of electronic devices. In the past, most people couldn’t avoid solitude. But now there isn’t any.
This is anecdotal, but everybody I talk to seems so busy, and is communicating so incessantly, and around the clock, that I do think there is more and more prayerlessness. There is less and less time where people go into a solitary place to pray. And I am sure that we are more prayerless than we have been in the past, and that says our spiritual health is in freefall.

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