THE BOOK OF NOT SO COMMON PRAYER
A NEW WAY TO PRAY, A NEW WAY TO LIVE
Copyright © 2014 by Linda McCullough Moore
All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been requested.
ISBN 978-1-4267-8739-3
Scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by the Common English Bible. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.CommonEnglishBible.com.
Scripture quotations marked “NKJVTM” are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.TM
Scripture quotations marked WEB are taken from the World English Bible.
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To Asa
Judd and Katie
Gideon and Joshua
and to their
children’s children
And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains
and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind;
and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake;
and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire;
and after the fire a still small voice.
—1 Kings 19:11-12 (NKJV)
Contents
Introduction
1. One Pilgrim’s Story
2. Why Prayer?
3. Praying Time
4. Holy Discipline
5. The Practices of Prayer
6. Writing to God
7. Hearing God’s Voice
8. What’s Theology Got to Do with It?
9. Effectual Prayer
10. Zacheus and Tea Parties
Appendix
Notes
Acknowledgments
A few years ago, something happened to seriously rattle my cage—in fact, rattle it so absolutely that the cage door sprang open. I was attending a conference on spiritual disciplines, and I chanced to overhear a comment about a monk who lived centuries ago. That monk: Brother Lawrence.
I’ve always been a major fan of Brother Lawrence, who teaches in the book The Practice of the Presence of God that we can be in prayer all the time—while we are preparing food, teaching a class, or caring for a child. Brother Lawrence writes of a life of menial labor in the kitchen of his monastery, scrubbing pots and baking bread, all the while in fervent prayer and worship, reveling in the grace of God, in deep communion with his Savior, even as he worked. Seventeenth-century multitasking. The notion fit so nicely in my jam-packed, twenty-first-century life.
But that day at the conference, I learned that what gets left out of the story is that this same Brother Lawrence who practiced God’s presence while working also participated in formal, liturgical, corporate prayer eight times a day. Eight times. Every day. Then, he prayed without ceasing. I always wondered why my experience of prayer was not more like the one he described. It’s sort of like having been given a cake recipe that left out the part about turning on the oven. (And I always wondered why my cake was more like soup.)
Brother Lawrence had a discipline of prayer. Many times a day. Ah, I think, but that was then; this is now. Brother Lawrence didn’t have a carpool, children, e-mails, committees, jobs, and a cell phone. But, he did have a soul and a Savior, just the same as I. And he did have a moment-to-moment relationship with God in Christ that my heart often longs for, an intimacy of constant and soulful connection.
So. The conference ends. I go back home, bring in the mail, wash up the dishes that did not wash themselves while I was away, and I begin to wonder. What if I tried this? What if I tried to pray, not eight, but maybe four times a day? For fifteen minutes, say. I, whose discipline for physical exercise involves two friends coming to my house to drag me physically to the gym. I, who can sit down for a minute to watch the evening news and rise to standing an entire two-hour, twelve-commercial movie later.
Brother Lawrence’s formal practice of praying several times each day was so very different from anything in my experience. I, who actually believe that prayer might be the most important thing in life, had to admit I prayed when it was convenient. I loved God. I wanted to know him, and I gave prayer about five minutes a day. And even then, I might skip praying if the alarm clock failed or someone called a meeting before 9 a.m.
But it was as though I had been told a precious secret, and I remember the excitement I first felt when I decided I would try it. I would pray four times a day. And from the very start, and through the years that followed, the practice of praying in this way has been transformative. Spending time with God every few hours means God is on my mind; I’m conscious of his love as I move through the day; I see things through his eyes. This is no state of perfection. In fact, I am far more aware of my failings and my sin, which means I am continually awestruck at the cost Christ paid to bring us, every one, to a state of grace. This new practice has become a lovely swirl of holy consciousness, repentance, gratitude, and substantive blessing.
In this book I will share my journey, step by step, as I moved—sometimes smoothly, sometimes by fits and starts—to a new way to pray, a new way to live. This will be a conversation, an exploration of the meaning and the practice of this thing called prayer, and it will be a guidebook, offering nuts-and-bolts, practical help to get from here to there, from longing and dissatisfaction to a daily, hourly practice of heart-blessing, life-changing, not-at-all-common prayer. But, with God’s help, it is prayer that can be common for us all.
We know that it is possible to read a hundred books on prayer and still not pray. But it is my hope—and yes, my oft-prayed prayer—that this book will help you to discover why that is the case and what might be the remedy. I pray