now an important point for this
beginning time in mastering prayer. let
me ask you, what posture do you use when you pray? what do you do with your eyes? what do you do with your body when you pray?
i grew up in a tradition that
always used the phrase, “every head bowed, every eye closed,” when we prayed.
and i thought that was like a rule of prayer – “every head bowed, every eye
closed.” we thought of GOD as real far away so watching while you pray would be
distracting. i thought opening your eyes
when you were praying was kind of cheating. if you were at a restaurant, you had to pray
with your head bowed and eyes closed, and if a waitress saw you and you were
embarrassed, that counted as suffering for righteousness’ sake.
but it’s interesting when you
go to the bible about JESUS’ common posture for prayer. it will say, “HE stood and looked into the
heavens.” maybe that means HE looked up into the sky. maybe that means HE looked
into the air all around HIM.
there are records in scripture
of people praying as they stand, as they kneel, as they lay prostrate on the
ground, as they sit with their hands stretched out sometimes, with their faces
lifted towards the sky or bowed down towards the earth.
and the point of it is body
language really is an important part of communication.
people who have specialized in
this stuff say, “actually most of communication is visual. it’s body language.” sometimes when my parents were correcting me,
i’d be walking out of the room while they were talking. there’s a real important message that i’d be
sending while i would do that, and then we’d talk about body language.
the point is use your posture,
use your body to help you turn your mind and your heart towards GOD.
i walk 6 days a week an hour
and a half and a part of my walk time is praying. now i don’t close my eyes. i’m walking.
i need my eyes to be walking. but
i have found that it is a great time to commune with GOD. we were born in a garden, the garden of eden,
and out in nature is a natural place for me to talk with my best friend.
just a thought from the front
porch…
