Pondering the practicalities of improving the practice of prayer

William Law's advice for daily prayer (as spelled out in his Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life)is probably only really doable by someone in his position, independently wealthy with no need to work, and unmarried with no family responsibilities. He dedicated his life to serving the Lord with prayer and the use of his wealth for the poor, and he had the time for it.

He recommends praying six times a day, at 6 and 9AM, at noon, and at 3, 6 and 9PM, and he suggests topics he considers appropriate for those times. He doesn't prescribe how LONG each session should be, but the way he words it here and there hints that maybe he actually has in mind a whole hour at each session. Six hours a day! I'll be doing VERY well if I can arrange for two sessions of an hour each, or more sessions at fifteen minutes or so.

Many have written that the more you do the more you CAN do so it's mostly a matter of getting started.

He suggests Praise and Thanksgiving for the 6AM prayer, with the reading or chanting of certain psalms; Humility (the cultivation of humility and confession of lack of humility) for 9AM; prayer for universal love, and intercession for the people in your life for noon. Then Resignation is the subject of the 3PM prayer, "resignation" being the old-fashioned word for acceptance of everything the Lord brings into your life, contentment with thanks and praise, and "rejoicing in all circumstances," or willing what God wills, the ultimate expression of trust in God. Confession of sin is for 6PM and meditating on Death for 9PM.

I think I'd combine his prayers for the virtues of humility and universal love and resignation in one session, and combine thanksgiving and confession with other topics of my own, but otherwise I have other things I want to concentrate on. The state of the church is a big one, which includes prayer for revival, and "understanding the times" is another big one. If I ever could give specific times to my prayers I'd give each of these topics their own "hour" (even if that hour is only fifteen minutes). Right now I just pray my whole prayer list in one session whenever I sit down for that purpose. I haven't been able to come up with a way to apportion the topics on my list over the day as he suggests, but maybe a natural apportioning would come with time. Of course his method doesn't have to be followed at all, it's just that it appeals to me as a way to pray at length for important things.

If I'm honest I have to admit that I have plenty of time, no family responsibilities and only 20 to 30 working hours a week, at home too, so that I can apportion the time as I please. I have no excuse not to devote the remaining time to prayer. If I worked at it diligently eventually I might even be able to organize my day to provide for regular hours of prayer as Law advises. It's quite clear, however, that my prayerlessness has nothing to do with practicalities. I suspect that even for the busiest of people the problem is always motivation or commitment. Once the commitment is made the time takes care of itself, some forms of busyness get dropped because you come to see that they are not serving any good purpose anyway, and others get taken care of in less time at better times.

The biographies of some of the most dedicated saints often show a prodigious dedication of time to the Lord even in the busiest life. That's how the spiritual power they are known for was won. I forget who it was who worked a twelve-hour day then came home and studied the Bible and prayed for something like another six to eight hours and slept for only the few hours left. He was young. Could I get my sleep needs down at all? Maybe I could, maybe a lot of it is simply habit, and time with the Lord invigorates too. Do I have the excuse of not being young? It's probably best not to explain away anything but put it in the Lord's hands.

At the moment making a regular schedule does seem to be beyond me, I must admit. I haven't been able to sleep at regular times for years now. Just when I think I may be getting onto a reasonable sleep schedule I find myself lying awake for hours, and back I go to sleeping during the day, which I'd rather not do. I end up working during the night, and I pray only when I'm awake and not having to work and there's nothing else I really have to do. In other words, not nearly enough.

Prayer is crucial, the more the better, and fasting with prayer some of those times just as crucial. I know this, I know it I know it I know it, but doing it is SO hard. Sometimes I'm just sitting and thinking Why can't I be praying right now? Getting started seems impossible sometimes.

But at least I'm getting a prayer list worked out. Just to give the barest outline:

For myself: The virtues Law recommends, and healing for arthritis pain and other physical problems.

For friends and family and neighbors: Salvation and God's blessings.

For the church: An increase in the spirit of prayer above all. Just what I'm writing about here and want for myself. Honestly facing disobedience in the church and purging it.

Understanding the times: Right now I really want to understand the Rapture claims, meaning the expectation of the removal of the church from earth as a separate event at some time before the Second Coming. There is a lot that supports it but still enough to keep me from completely accepting it. I'm definitely a Futurist as far as prophecy goes. About all I know for sure is that I can't accept Amillennialism or Preterism. I wrote some about this on the End Times Monitor blog a while back.