New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday this year.  It’s one of those rare times on which we find ourselves in a church building instead of on a couch or in a bed at 10:15 AM after staying up to welcome in the New Year.  Being New Year’s Day, many of us may be thinking about resolutions.  According to CCN, about 100 million Americans are making New Year’s resolutions this morning.[1]

I believe our tradition of New Year’s resolutions ultimately stems from a God-given hunger.  God created us to grow, to mature, and to develop.  The New Year in our culture reminds us of this.  We hunger for transformation and renewal.  And most of us are not content with just superficial renewal.  We’re interested in significant renewal.  We long for significant rather than just superficial renewal.

Earlier this year The New York Times reported on Hany Farid, a professor at Dartmouth.[2] Farid noticed that many of the pictures of celebrities which show up in magazines are altered.  He’s found that the retouching can be slight — colors brightened, a stray hair erased, or a pimple healed. Or it can be drastic — carving 10 or 20 pounds off the celebrity, adding a few inches in height, or erasing all wrinkles and blemishes.  Farid has thus proposed a tool which can detect how much a photo has been altered.  He proposes a scale of 1-5 which would then be labeled onto every photo in every magazine.  Slightly altered photos would be labeled with a 1.  Drastically altered photos would be labeled with a 5.

Renewal in the form of digital alteration is fairly easy with today’s technology.  But I don’t think any of us would be satisfied with that kind of renewal when it came to our lives.  It’s too superficial.  What good is it to photoshop twenty pounds off a photograph when you’ve not actually lost a single pound?  Most of us are interested in significant renewal.

What most of us are looking for is the kind of renewal pictured by C. S. Lewis.  Lewis’ book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was made into a movie in 2010.  The book and the movie tell of Lucy and Edmund Pevensie returning to Narnia, this time with their cousin Eustace.  Eustace is easy to dislike.  He’s rude.  He’s self-centered.  He’s a know-it-all.  He’s greedy.  And he looks down on everyone.  At one point in the movie Eustace stumbles upon some treasure on an island.  He hoards it all for himself.  And after this horrendous display of avarice Eustace transforms into a dragon.  He becomes on the outside what he is on the inside.  He morphs from a boy to a dragon, because he has acted like such an animal.  In despair, Eustace eventually turns to Lucy and Edmund and begs for their help.  But they can do nothing for him.  It’s only when Eustace lands on another island and meets Aslan the lion that he finds the help he seeks.  Aslan, representing Jesus, is able to scratch away the dragon skin and renew Eustace into a human.  The transformation is painful.  But when it’s done, not only is Eustace changed outwardly, he is changed inwardly as well.  He becomes humble, brave, caring, and giving.  That, I believe, is the kind of renewal most of us long for: deep, significant renewal.

This is the kind of renewal Paul describes in Colossians 3.  Colossians is part of a group of letters from Paul called the “prison epistles” or “prison letters.”  They were all written by Paul during one of his imprisonments.  They include Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians, and Philemon.  In Colossians Paul is writing to a relatively young church.  He’s writing to help them experience spiritual renewal. ^[3] We could, in fact, call Chapter 1 “The Plea for Renewal.”  Paul shares in chapter 1 that he’s been praying that they would “be filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” and that they would be “bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”  He finishes chapter 1 by telling them that he’s writing so that they can become “mature in Christ.”  Paul wants to see these young Christians experience the kind of deep and significant renewal only God can bring.

But if Chapter 1 is “The Plea for Renewal,” then Chapter 2 is “The Path to Superficial Renewal.”   In Chapter 2, Paul reveals that some of the Colossians have embraced a spirituality that’s only going to lead to superficial renewal.  There’s a great deal of debate about what this alternate spirituality is.  Some scholars argue that teachers of pagan philosophy or pagan religions are influencing these Christians.  Others argue that fundamentalist Jewish teachers are influencing these Christians.  Either way, some “experts” in renewal are leading these Christians astray.

As Paul reveals in Chapter 2, these so-called experts are telling these Christians that they’d experience renewal if they eat certain things and drink certain things and observe certain holy days.  It is a growth plan that centers on keeping an endless list of rules.  Paul mentions some of them in chapter 2: “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch.”  And Paul writes in vs. 23 “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”  All of these external rules, Paul says, will only lead to superficial growth.  They have no real value in bringing about any kind of deep transformation.

If Chapter 1 is “The Plea for Renewal” and Chapter 2 is “The Path to Superficial Renewal” then Chapter 3 is “The Plan for Significant Renewal.”  Finally in Chapter 3 reveals a plan for Christians to experience real renewal.  This is the chapter where Paul shows how Jesus can change us from dragons into humans.  If you look back at 2011 and see ways in which you’ve acted like an animal and you long to have that dragon skin removed in 2012, this is the chapter for you.  This chapter, especially Col. 3:1-17 will be our focus in this four-part Sunday morning series called “Renew You.”  We’ll look at four things that lead to significant renewal.

This morning we focus on the first four verses: ¹ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Col. 3:1-4 ESV).  One point Paul makes throughout Colossians is that Christians and Christ are tied up together.  Here, Paul reminds us that “you have died” [with Christ], “you have been raised with Christ,” and “you also will appear with [Christ].”  Just as Jesus died on the cross, was raised from the dead, and will appear at the Second Coming, so we have died with him, been raised with him, and will appear with him.  The link between us and Jesus is so strong that Paul actually says “your life is hidden with Christ” and “When Christ who is your life.”  Jesus is now the source of our life.  When Paul writes that our life is “hidden with Christ” he means that Jesus is the hidden source of our life. [4] That is, when other people look at me, they only see Chris Altrock.  What they don’t see, what is hidden from them, is the fact that Jesus is the source of my life.  Jesus is the hidden battery, the hidden power plant, that makes “me” possible.  Paul’s point is that renewal can only come from Christ.  As you look into 2012 and you dream about renewal at work, at home, in your marriage, with your parents or your children, or renewal with God, it can only come through Christ.  Your life is now hidden with Christ.  He is the only source of deep and lasting renewal.  Everything else you may turn to in 2012—books, magazines, DVD’s, programs, and preachers—can only bring superficial renewal.  Only Jesus can bring deep and lasting renewal.

And the place where Jesus wants to begin is with our mind.  The place where this hidden power source begins to make a deep difference is in our thinking.  Listen once more to the first two verses: ¹If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Renewal begins when we “set our minds on things that are above.”  Renewal begins when we concentrate our thinking on Christ.  His character, his deeds, and his words.  We are to “set our minds on” these things.  Later in vs. 10 Paul will write about our being “renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”  Renewal begins with knowledge.  It beings with the mind.  It begins by focusing the mind on Christ and his way of life.

The verb “set your mind on” occurs 26 times in the New Testament.  Twenty-three of those occurrences come in Paul’s letters.  Paul wrote more about the Christian mind than anyone else in the New Testament.  Paul specifically used this verb to indicate that the way a Christian thinks is intimately tied to the way a Christian lives.[5] Paul believed you change living by first changing thinking.  For example, Paul writes in Rom. 12:2 “let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (NLT).  Paul uses the same verb here in Colossians 3.  Paul wants us to set our minds on things above because that’s where renewal begins.  God will transform us into a new person by first changing the way we think.

Paul’s saying that the first step toward renewal is not doing better.  It’s thinking better.  Here’s another way of putting it: Renewal is rooted in orthodoxy not just orthopraxy. Orthopraxy is literally “right practice” or “right actions.”  It refers to doing the right things.  But orthodoxy is literally “right thinking” or “right believing.”  It refers to thinking the right things.  For most of us, there is a tendency to focus on orthopraxy.  When it comes to renewal most of us give very little thought to changing our thinking and instead we just try to change our doing.  But Paul believes that what we set our minds on will have a radical impact on our doing.  You get to orthopraxy by attending to orthodoxy.

In 2005, Ron Sider wrote a widely read book called The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience.   Sider showed study after study which revealed that when it came to our doing, most Christians were behaving just like non-Christians.  The rates of divorce, premarital sex, domestic violence and use of pornography were about the same among Christians as they were among non-Christians.  Sider thus called for renewal.  He said the Christian church in America needed deep and significant renewal.   And what he meant by that was orthopraxy.  Evangelical Christians needed to start acting in better ways.  Renewal would come by doing things better.

But ten years earlier, Mark Noll wrote a similar book called The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.  Like Sider would, Noll found that there was a great need for renewal among Christians.  Unlike Sider, Noll said the key was not getting Christians to start acting right.  They key was to get them to start thinking right.  What Christians most needed to focus on was not actions but thinking.  The mind was the frontline of the battle for renewal.  And that’s exactly what Paul is telling us.  Significant renewal begins when you set your mind on the things of Christ.

John Ortberg shows how a difference in mindset can impact the way two individuals experience the same day.[6] Here is an excerpt from a Dog’s Diary:

8:00 AM – Dog food!  My favorite thing!

9:30 AM – A car ride! My favorite thing!

9:40 AM – A walk in the park!  My favorite thing!

10:30 AM – Got rubbed and petted!  My favorite thing!

12:00 PM – Lunch!  My favorite thing!

1:00 PM – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!

3:00 PM – Wagged my tail!  My favorite thing!

5:00 PM – Milk bones!  My favorite thing!

7:00 PM – Got to play ball!  My favorite thing!

8:00 PM – Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!

11:00 PM – Sleeping on the bed!  My favorite thing!

And here is an excerpt from a cat’s diary regarding the very same day: Day 983 of my captivity.  My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre, little dangling objects.  The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. Our mind-set has a tremendous bearing on how we experience life.  One individual’s mind-set allows him to experience everything during the day as “my favorite thing.”  The other individual’s mind-set allows him to experience the same day as “captivity.”  Renewal begins by changing our mindset.

Michael Hyatt writes: When I was twenty-nine years old, I became vice president of marketing for Thomas Nelson. It was a huge step up in my career. At the time, I thought I had arrived at the pinnacle of success. But I was in over my head. Or at least that’s the way it felt. I was just waiting for other people to come to the same conclusion.  I struggled constantly with anxiety and fear—anxiety was the daytime version; fear was the nighttime version.  This manifest itself in my body in two embarrassing ways: First, I sweat profusely. Second, my hands were always cold—ice cold.  Before attending important meetings, I would wear two t-shirts, hoping that I wouldn’t sweat through both. I strategically selected my clothing, based on which colors would show the least amount of perspiration.  I would also step into the bathroom right before the meeting began, and frantically run hot water over my hands. I would then dry them vigorously, praying that they would warm up. I dreaded having to shake hands with anyone.  At some point, I realized that the problem was not in my body, but in my head. I was telling myself a bad story. Mine went like this:  You are too young for this job. Worse, you don’t have the experience. Who do you think you are fooling? It’s just a matter of time before everyone in the company sees it. When that happens, you will be out on the street—right where you should have been all along.  I would never say this out loud, of course. It was just the sound-track that was playing inside my head.  Things didn’t change until I became aware of the story and took control of the narrative. I started telling myself a different story… Mine went like this: Yes, you are young. That gives you tremendous energy. You also don’t have a lot of experience, which is why it is easier for you to think outside the box. God has provided everything you need to be successful in this situation. Even if you fail, you will learn something from it. You can’t lose; you can only quit. And you most certainly are not a quitter! Hyatt didn’t change his actions.  He changed his mind.  He focused his mind on something far more heavenly.  And that led to radical renewal in the way he experienced life.

Paul’s text points to this truth.  Paul is saying that life renewal begins with specific habits of mind renewal. Paul is urging us to adopt specific habits of setting our minds on things above, of filling our minds with Christ and the things of Christ.  Why?  Because the more we fill our minds with Christ, who is our life, the more we will begin to live like Christ.  The first things you need to set in place to make 2012 better than 2011 are specific habits by which you can focus on and keep your mind filled with Christ.

Let me offer four possible habits:.

1. First, memorizing Scripture can be a powerful way to begin renewing your mind.  The key is to memorize something short and to repeat it to yourself during the day at stoplights, when you drink from your water bottle, or every time you Tweet, text, or post a Facebook update.  The memorized Scripture becomes a booster rocket that lifts your mind toward heavenly things.  You could choose a statement from Jesus, a line from one of the Psalms, or an especially encouraging line from one of Paul’s letters.
2. Second, the Jesus Prayer is one way to keep your mind focused on Christ.  Practiced for centuries by Christians, the Jesus Prayer is a short prayer meant to be said as you breath.  In its shortest form, it’s simply this: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”  As you breath in, you say silently or think to yourself: “Lord Jesus Christ.”  As you exhale, you say silently or think to yourself: “have mercy on me.”  I often practice this on Fridays when I am doing work at home and have some time alone.  I find that it keeps my mind focused on Christ.
3. Third, reading the Bible daily is a powerful way to keep your mind focused on Jesus’ story, God’s story, instead of some inferior story you are telling yourself or which others are telling you.  You don’t have to read long.  In as little as 5 minutes a day you can give your mind something heavenly to chew on.  If you have a smartphone or tablet, I encourage you to use the YouVersion Bible which has numerous reading plans.  Some take you through the whole Bible in a year.  Others take you through the New Testament in 30 days.  Some let you survey key texts in the Bible.  Others focus only on the Gospels.  Pick a plan and stick with it.  YouVersion will even keep track of the readings for you and give you reminders when you miss.
4. Fourth, use inspiring art, jewelry, music, graphic designs, or objects to keep your mind focused on Christ.  I often wear a cross.  Each time I see it or feel it, I think about Christ.  I have a replica of the Cristo Redentor statue  on my office table which reminds me of Christ.  Carl McKelvey, an acquaintance in Nashville, keeps a large print of Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal hanging in his office to compel him to think of Christ.  Earl Lavender, a friend at Lipscomb University, has visual representations of the 7 Deadly Sins on a wall in his office.  These force him to think of Christ when he sees them.  All of these are just different ways of setting your mind on Christ.

Ultimately, Paul reveals in Col. 2:11-12, renewal begins with baptism.  Paul writes that in baptism we are buried with Jesus and raised with Jesus.  We undergo a circumcision of sorts—having the bad and evil aspects of our lives cut off by the power of God.  Part of the new life God gives us through baptism is a new mind.  The renewal of our thinking begins in baptism as God pours his Holy Spirit in us who is able to correct our thinking and help set our minds on things above.  If you’ve never taken that step, today is a great day to do just that.  Begin this New Year by getting baptized.  Begin personal renewal in the most powerful way—by being immersed in water in the name of Jesus so that God can wash away your sins and fill you with his Holy Spirit.

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/technology/software-to-rate-how-drastically-photos-are-retouched.html?_r=1

^[3] Wright, N. T. (1986). Vol. 12: Colossians and Philemon: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (22–23). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[4] James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Eerdmans, 1996), 207.

[5] Peter T. O’Brien Colossians, Philemon Word Biblical Commentary (Word, 1982), 163.

[6] John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be (Zondervan, 2010), 95.

Perfect Prayer

“Did I pray that correctly?”

I’m sometimes asked this question by a friend when we meet for prayer.  After she completes a brief time of leading our petitions, she occasionally gives voice to this fear: “Did I pray OK?”  She worries that she isn’t using the right words in the right way.  She frets that she doesn’t have the right emphasis and the right emotions.

Another friend regularly asks me to pray on his behalf, something I am honored to do.  But there are times when he prefaces his request with remarks like this: “You always pray better than I do.  You always know just what to say.  I think God’s more likely to answer your prayer about this than he is mine.”  My friend doubts he can produce the kind of plea that will catch God’s ear.

People of prayer have long struggled with this perspective.  It’s an outlook which views God as one who must be persuaded to act.  And only precise prayer-words will convince this reluctant God to answer affirmatively.

This was even a stance taken by many even in Jesus’ day.  While preaching about piety in Matt. 6:1-18, Jesus warns,

“The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.” (Matt. 6:7-8 The Message).

Some ancient mystics believed they needed the right rule, the perfect program, or the most winsome words in order to get what they wanted from God.  Only those who could stitch words together into a flawless format could win over God’s heart.

Simple Supplication

But prayer is intended to be much simpler.  Peter Kreeft writes about the ease of prayer:[i]

Prayer is easier than we think…We can all do it, even the most sinful, shallow, silly, and stupid of us.  You do not have to master some mystical method. You do not have to master a method at all.  Can you talk to a friend? Then you can talk to God, for he is your Friend. And that is what prayer is. The single most important piece of advice about prayer is one word: Begin! God makes it easy: just do it!

Prayer is easier than we think.  It doesn’t require seamless sentences and faultless phonetics.  It can be as natural and unscripted as a conversation with a friend.  Jesus’ preferred image is that of a dialogue between a child and a parent: “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father…’” (Matt. 6:9 ESV).

Still, many of us feel the need for help.  We realize we don’t need perfect prose or sanctified speech.  But we’re not exactly sure what to say.  We feel a bit like Anne of Green Gables.[ii] The movie features Ann Shirley, an orphaned child placed the home of Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert.  One evening Marilla and Anne discuss prayer:

“Have you said your prayers?” Marilla asks Anne.

“I never say any prayers,” Anne responds.

“What do you mean? Haven’t you been taught to say your prayers?”

“Mrs. Hammond told me that God made my hair red on purpose, and I’ve never cared for him since.”

“Well, while you’re under my roof you will say your prayers.”

“Why, of course.  If you want me to. How does one do it?”

“You thank God for his blessings, and then humbly ask him for the things you want.”

“I’ll do my best. ‘Dear gracious heavenly Father, I thank you for everything. As for the things I especially want, they’re so numerous it would take a great deal of time to mention them all. So, I’ll just mention the two most important: please let me stay at Green Gables; please make me beautiful when I grow up. I remain yours respectfully, Anne Shirley—with an e.’ Did I do all right?”

“Yes, if you were addressing a business letter to the catalog store. Get into bed.”

“I should have said ‘amen’ instead of ‘yours respectfully.’ Think it’ll make any difference?”

“I expect God will overlook it—this time. Good night.”

We want to embrace the simplicity of prayer promised by Jesus, but we’re so often still unsure of what to say or how to say it.

The Ready Made Prayers of Jesus

This is why Jesus introduces us to what Mark Thibodeaux calls “ready-made prayers.”[iii] Jesus’ “Lord’s Prayer” in Matt. 6 is one of these—a pre-written prayer ready to be prayed by any follower of Jesus hungry for help on praying.  Through supplications such as this, Jesus takes us by the hand and walks us through a conversation with the Father.  Not to show us the only words that can ever be used.  But to reveal to us themes and habits that make for the most fruitful and enriching times of divine discussion.

This “Lord’s Prayer” is only one of many ready-made prayers.  The Gospels are filled with other petitions Jesus himself spoke.  They provide magnificent mentoring regarding prayer.  There are at least ten occasions on which the Gospel authors record the actual words Jesus spoke in prayer.  In them we find Jesus praying at least three types of prayers.[iv]

First, Jesus prayed inward prayers of complaint.  Here, Jesus gave voice to the deepest feelings of disappointment.  In his inward prayers of complaint Jesus teaches us how to look deep within ourselves and to share dark and discouraging feelings with God in prayer, to complain about our pain.

• ³⁶ Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” ³⁹And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” ⁴⁰And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? ⁴¹ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ⁴²Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” ⁴³And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. ⁴⁵Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” (Matt. 26:36-46 ESV)

• ³³And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. ³⁴And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ³⁵And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” ³⁶And someone ran and filled a sponge with  sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” ³⁷And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. (Mk. 15:33-37 ESV)

• ²⁸After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now  finished, said ( to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” ²⁹A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. (Jn. 19:28-29 ESV).

Second, Jesus prayed upward prayers of confidence.  Despite the darkness and the despair, Jesus was able to pray upwardly with confidence that God still ruled, still listened, still reigned, and still cared.  Through these upward prayers of confidence Jesus shows us how to trust God even in the darkness.

• ²¹ In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” (Luke 10:21 ESV)

• ⁴¹And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” (John 11:41-43 ESV).

• ²³And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵ Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. ²⁷“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” ²⁹The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” (John 12:23-29 ESV).

• ³⁰When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (Jn. 19:30 ESV).

• ⁴⁴ It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. (Lk. 23:44-46 ESV).

Third, Jesus prayed outward prayers of compassion.  Here Jesus looked outward and prayed for the needs of friends and foes alike. With his outward prayers of compassion Jesus instructs us how to passionately plea for the people around us.

• ¹When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ²since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. ⁵And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.  ⁶ “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. ⁸For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ¹²While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sake  I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. ²⁰“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ²⁴Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:1-26 ESV).

• ³² Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. ³³And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. ³⁴And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk. 23:32-34 ESV).

Take Ten

Choose one of the prayers of Jesus above and use it to inspire and/or inform a time of prayer today.

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[ii] Anne of Green Gables (Walt Disney, 1985), based on a novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

[iii] Mark Thibodeaux, Armchair Mystic (Saint Anthony Messenger Press, 2001).

[iv] See my Prayers from the Pit (21^st Century Christian, 2011).

The Psalms are the original pre-owned prayers.  They are supplications and songs used by the people of God for generations.  Learning to pray the Psalms may be the simplest yet most significant step you can take towards growth in your relationship with God.

The Psalms fall into three categories: Orientation, Disorientation and Reorientation.[i] In psalms of orientation God is viewed as trustworthy and reliable.  Life is happy and the one praying is grateful for the stability and predictability of life.  These psalms provide opportunities to pray about some of the most basic things of life which are responsible for the pleasantness of life.  Examples include Ps. 19, 104, and 119.

Like psalms of orientation, psalms of reorientation are also prayers of praise and thanksgiving.  But rather than focus on the stability and dependability of the life which God has created, reorientation prayers rejoice for a recent way in which God has delivered the author from despair or danger.  They offer praise at its highest and loudest.  Examples include Ps. 16, 23, 100, and 150.

Psalms of disorientation stand in stark contrast to the other two.  These are prayers gasped and groaned when life is at its worst.  In them, God seems neither dependable nor desirable.  Those who are praying lament their situation in life and beg God for a change in their circumstances.  These are the most disturbing prayers in the Old Testament.  They include Ps. 13, 51, and 69.

I’ve found it helpful to reclassify these Old Testament prayers as prayers of the plain (orientation), prayers of the peak (reorientation), and prayers of the pit (disorientation).

• Prayers of the Plain are those psalms in which life is ordinary and routine and we thank God for the basic things of life that make life so good.
• Prayers of the Peak are those psalms in which life is unusually good and we thank God for a specific way in which he has been active in our lives.
• Prayers of the Pit are those psalms in which life is hard and horrible and we give voice to our harshest feelings.  They are the prayers which are colored primarily by challenge and suffering in life.

Each kind of Psalm stretches us to go beyond what we normally experience in prayer.  Prayers of the Plain stretch us to pray about issues we may generally overlook or take for granted, such as a beautiful and life-giving earth or the wise and insight-giving Scriptures.  Prayers of the Pit stretch us to grieve to God with bold and unapologetic laments that we may have never used before in prayer.  And Prayers from the Peak stretch us to praise in ways we may have never done before in prayer, using colorful and creative language.

Take Ten

One way to deepen your prayer-life is to pray one Psalm each day.  You can do this in about ten minutes (you may need to divide up some of the longer Psalms).  Some of the Psalms can be prayed nearly verbatim, just as they are written.  In others, you will need to make some revisions, such as changing second-person or third-person language to first-person language.  In some cases, you may wish to read the entire Psalm and then just paraphrase it to God in your own words.

There are two options for praying a Psalm daily: pray through the Psalter chronologically, or pray one type of Psalm each day (e.g., a Prayer from the Plain on day 1,  a Prayer from the Pit on day 2, and a Prayer from the Peak on day 3).  Below is a table that identifies each of the Psalms for you.  Take ten right now and pray through one Psalm.

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Making Our Last Resort the First Resort

I was recently talking to a friend who is a preaching minister.  For several months he had faced an immovable impediment in his ministry.  One person was frustrating every move he made to pursue the path he believed God wanted his congregation to take.  He and other leaders had discerned bold visions for the church’s future, but all plans were on pause because of this single stubborn person.  My friend tried everything to pass the impasse.  He sought to reason with the man.  Then, he asked his mentors what to say and do.  And, he sent other church leaders to speak to the individual.  But all this work produced no progress.

Finally, one day, a colleague from another congregation asked my friend, “Have you fasted and prayed about this?  If I were you, that’s what I would do.  Fast and pray.”  My friend had not.  That week he began.  He decided to spend each Thursday fasting and praying.

Four weeks later, that intractable individual holding everything up and holding everyone hostage took a job offer in another state.

Prayer had been my friend’s last resort.  It should have been his first resort.  Because, in the end, it was his only resort.

Jesus makes a similar case in his Sermon on the Mount.  In Matt. 6:1-18 Jesus speaks specifically about piety, about growing more intimate with the Father.  Jesus draws attention to three practices of piety: giving, praying, and fasting.  Of the three, Jesus shows prayer to be the most indispensable.

First, Jesus spends greater time speaking on prayer than on the other two practices which are mentioned in his section on piety.  Giving receives three verses of Jesus’ speech.  Fasting similarly receives three verses.  But prayer receives eleven verses.  Jesus devotes nearly four times the space to speaking on prayer as he does highlighting these other practices.

Second, when we consider that fasting (Matt. 6:16-18) by its very nature centers on prayer, two-thirds of Jesus’ piety presentation contain instruction and inspiration regarding prayer.  Of the eighteen verses in this message on spirituality, fourteen focus on prayer.

Third, when Jesus speaks of fasting and of giving, he identifies mistakes which other Jewish spiritual leaders are making.  But in his section on supplication, Jesus additionally identifies mistakes which Gentile spiritual leaders are making.  Jesus is so intent on ensuring that we experience prayer as originally intended that he doubles his efforts to reveal flawed approaches to it.  That is, Jesus spends twice as long clarifying wrong approaches to prayer as he does clarifying wrong approaches to giving or to fasting.

Finally, only in the portion on prayer does Jesus give us a “formula.”  Only here does Jesus spell out in detail exactly how to do prayer.  It’s here we find the “Lord’s Prayer.”  Though never intended as something which must be said word-for-word, its words nonetheless have become the pathway to richer prayer for centuries.  Countless Christians have grown more in tune with the Father and more in line with his will through the words of this prayer than any other prayer.  No other section in Jesus’ piety presentation contains this level of detailed instruction.

If we wish to dive deeper into the spiritual life, prayer must never be our last resort.  It must always be our first resort.

Ready Made Prayers

And Jesus’ model-prayer introduces something which Mark Thibodeaux calls “ready-made prayers.”^[i] Ready-made prayers are those which someone else has authored for us.  We pray using someone else’s words rather than our own.  And by praying them, we are led into experiences we may have never reached by relying solely on our own prayer-words.

Scripture is full of these ready-made prayers.  In fact, Adele Calhoun writes that “In the early centuries of the church, believers were taught to pray the Scriptures.  Since the Bible is divinely inspired, they believed that praying Scripture deeply connected them to the mind and heart of God.  Furthermore, as Scripture was repeatedly prayed, it became memorized.  This was a wonderful benefit for those who were illiterate.  It also meant that memorized Scripture could lead them to pray at any hour of the day or night.”[ii] For centuries Christians have relied heavily on the ready-made prayers found in Scripture.

In upcoming posts, we’ll explore three sources of these “pre-packaged” prayers in the Bible: the Psalms, Jesus’ prayers, and the prayers and writings of Paul.

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[ii] Adele Calhoun Spiritual Disciplines Handbook (IVP Books, 2005), 246.

At Seattle’s Boeing Field, brand new commercial jets are put through their paces.[i] During test flights in 2004, Boeing discovered serious problems in several new planes.  Mechanics found glass beads destroying the inside of the engines.  The beads, about the size of sugar granules, wrecked the engines beyond repair.

Officials set out to determine the source of the droplets.  Eventually, their investigation led them to a runway.  New reflective lines had just been painted on the airstrip.  The paint contained small glass beads which reflected light.  But the paint was defective.  On one patch of paint, the beads granules were separating from the paint.  As the plane engines increased thrust and passed this patch, they sucked up these granules.  The result was fifty million dollars of damage.

Sometimes it is the tiny threats which cause some of the greatest harm.  This is especially true in our spiritual life.

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The word “examen” comes from Latin and refers to the weight indicator on a balance scale.  It carries the idea of “an accurate assessment of the true situation.”[i] The Examen gives us an assessment of the true situation between us and God.  This spiritual practice forces us to pay attention to matters we may normally remain oblivious to.  It empowers us to see the small but significant things that get in between us and God.

Another name for the Examen is the Prayer of Examen.  Traditionally, the Prayer of Examen has two aspects.[ii] The first is an “examen of consciousness” through which we recognize the ways in which God has been present to us during the day and how we’ve responded to that presence.  We examine how conscious we have been of God throughout the day and in what ways God may have been speaking to us or reaching out to us during the day.  Because our spiritual lives are so often unexamined, these moments of divine consciousness are often invisible to us.  The Examen makes them visible.

The second aspect of the Prayer of Examen is an “examen of conscience” through which we recognize the moral and spiritual areas of our character which need cleansing and purifying.  Here, through a detailed review of the past few areas, we bring into vision what may ordinarily be out of vision.  We notice the “big” and “small” habits and customs which have either helped or hindered our drawing near to God.

Writing about this examen of conscience, St. Ignatius of Loyola writes, “Let him go over hour by hour, or period by period, commencing at the hour he rose, and continuing up to the hour and instant of the present examen, and let him make…as many dots as were the times he has fallen into that particular sin or defect.  Then let him resolve anew to amend himself up to the second Examen which he will make.”[iii] In other words, Loyola actually envisioned us making a visually tally of the times we had fallen into a particular sin or defect over the course of several hours.  Then, with God’s help, we resolved to live anew for the remainder of the day.

If you choose to spend an Examen reflecting on character issues, it may be helpful to think through think through different categories of sin.[iv] For example you could consider the list of the seven deadly sins: pride, anger, lust, envy, greed, sloth, and gluttony.  You could use the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20).  Or you could reflect on lists in Paul’s letters in which he contrasts sins to avoid with qualities to pursue (Rom. 12:9-21; 1 Cor. 13:4-8; Gal. 5:16-23; Col. 3:5-14).  With these in mind, during your Examen you can consider your answer to two questions: In what ways did I struggle with the sins in this list today?  In what ways did I experience the positive qualities in this list today?

If, during an Examen, you find that a particular sin shows up again and again, you might choose to dig more deeply by asking yourself, Why did I do what I did?  What happened as a result of my sin?[v] Exploring these two questions can help get at some of the profounder issues underlying that particular sin.

Marjorie Thompson writes that when using an Examen to focus on character issues it is very important to “put on neither the rose-colored glasses of naïve optimism nor the gray-colored glasses of needless pessimism.”[vi] That is, some of us are so positive and uncritical that it’s difficult for us to discern any character struggles during our day.  Others of us are so negative and critical that it’s difficult for us to discern any character successes during our day.  This is why the Examen necessitates an examination of both highs and lows, successes and failures, steps forward and steps backward.

This kind of daily self-examination can be difficult.  Yet it is worth it.  Thompson reminds us of three benefits which flow from it.[vii] First, it leads to greater self-awareness.  The more we truly know ourselves the better able we are to truly know God.  Second, it leads to greater truthfulness and honesty about ourselves.  We can now let go of pretense and humbly accept ourselves as we are.  Finally, it leads to greater compassion.  The more clearly we see ourselves, the less likely we are to judge and critique others.  Seeing our brokenness helps us identify with the brokenness in others.

Take Ten

Ruth Haley Barton provides the following as a way of conducting both an examen of consciousness and an examen of conscience.  Take ten minutes today and follow her pattern of prayer:[viii]

1. Look back on the events of the past twenty-four hours, asking God to guide you in seeing what he wants you to see.
2. As you reflect on the events, ask God to show you where he was present with you, even though you may not have recognized it at the time.
3. Ask God to show you the places where you are growing and changing.  Thank him for evidence of his transforming work.
4. Ask God to show you places where you fell short of Christlikeness.  Be careful not to succumb to shame or morbid introspection; instead, simply name your failure honestly, confess it to God, and receive his forgiveness.
5. Finish by thanking God for the day and for his presence in your life.

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[ii] Foster, Prayer, 27-28.

[iii] St. Ignatius Loyola and Father Elder Mullan, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (Saint Benedict Press, 2010), 21-22.

[iv] John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Zondervan, 1997), 123-124.

[v] Ortberg, Life, 126.

[vi] Marjorie Thompson, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life (Westminster John Knox, 1995), 86.

[vii] Thompson, 98-99.

[viii] Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rythms Participant’s Guide (Zondervan, 2011), 62.

Jesus identifies spiritual roadblocks which seemed invisible to even the most devout in his day.  The mystical masters of Jesus’ world could certainly spot the spiritual roadblock of murder (Matt. 6:21) or adultery (Matt. 6:27).  They perceived with precision that immoralities like these kept people from intimacy with God.  But they failed to recognize the spiritual barrier of anger which was the first step toward murder (Matt. 6:22).  They could not detect the barricade of lust which eventually fueled adultery (Matt. 6:28).  The professionally pious seemed content to rid their path of obvious obstacles of murder and adultery.  But they remained oblivious to “lesser” yet equally damaging depravities like anger and lust.

This failure marks all of us.  It marks me.  Early in my walk with Jesus I labored to rid my life of the low hanging fruit regarding when it came to ungodliness.  My sexual impurity was easy to spot and became the object of intense repentance and renewal.  But once I tackled the noticeable corruptions like sexual impurity, I relaxed.  I slowed down.  I figured the fight was basically over.

As I grew older in the faith, however, it began to dawn on me that “lesser” yet similarly significant sins were standing between me and my Father.  These iniquities disguised themselves and remained in the shadows.  They were woven deep into my habits of thinking, my worldview, and my “natural” tendencies.  Only with great intentionality could I even fathom them, much less fight them: my deep hunger for approval, my fear of failure, and my drive to control conditions and colleagues.  I soon sought a way to better highlight these hidden sins and deal with them in an aggressive manner.  The Examen provided just this.

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A fixed focus on the persistent presence of God is central to the piety Jesus speaks of in the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus introduces his message on spirituality in Matt. 6 by urging us to consider our audience.  Too many of us, Jesus warns, think only of “other people in order to be seen by them” rather than concentrating on our “Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 6:1).  Throughout his message, Jesus contrasts this audience of One with the audience of many whom some in Jesus’ day sought to impress with inflated acts of piety.  But God, Jesus teaches, is always present and is to be the only spectator with whom we are concerned.

Thus, when we “give to the needy” in order to honor God, we recognize our “Father who sees in secret” (Matt. 6:4 ESV).  When we pray in order to commune with God, we acknowledge our “Father who sees in secret” (Matt. 6:6 ESV).  And when we fast in order to draw nearer to God, we accept the attendance of a “Father who sees in secret” (Matt. 6:18 ESV).

Jesus speaks often in this message about the “reward” of spirituality (Matt. 6:1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 16, 18).  He suggests that piety is at its most rewarding when we experience God as a constant companion and an enduring escort.  Even when we are “in secret” (or, especially when we are “in secret”) the Father is present and aware of all we are doing.  He never forgets us.  He is never oblivious of us.  The primary problem Jesus addresses is that we are often just the opposite.  We do forget God.  We are oblivious of him.  This leads us to then seek feedback from the only audience of which we are aware, the people around us.  But Jesus calls us back to a devotion which is grounded in the soil of one vital reality—God is at hand.

The Examen is a simple and structured way to live into this reality.  It is a means by which we can remember and experience the companionship of God throughout the day.  Twice or three times a day we pause all other activity and attend to the God who walked with us each moment of the day.

David Fleming provides a wonderfully simple translation of the Examen.[1] Take ten minutes right now and fall back into the arms of the one who’s never left your side.

God, thank you.

I thank you, God, for always being with me, but especially I am grateful that you are with me right now.

God, send your Holy Spirit upon me.

God, let the Holy Spirit enlighten my mind and warm my heart that I may know where and how we have been together this day.

God, let me look at my day.

God, where have I felt your presence, seen your face, heard your word this day?  God, where have I ignored you, run from you, perhaps even rejected you this day?

God, let me be grateful and ask forgiveness.

God, I thank you for the times this day we have been together and worked together.  God, I am sorry for the ways that I have offended you by what I have done or what I did not do.

God, stay close.

God, I ask that you draw me ever closer to you this day and tomorrow.  God, you are the God of my life—thank you.

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I once heard Dallas Willard interviewed at a California congregation.  He was speaking about the way that intolerable times of pain become unexpected times of praise by experiencing the presence of God within them.  Willard said “Experiencing the presence of God in one’s life is something you’ve got to have before you need it, like water before a fire.”  If you wait for a fire to spark before you secure water, you’re too late.  In the same way, if you wait for pain to hit before you cultivate an ongoing sense of the presence of God in your life, you’re too late.  Willard stressed that we must constantly “practice the presence of God.”  Throughout every day we must nurture a conviction that God is with us.  Then, when we encounter times which suggest God is not present, our minds and hearts will know better.

But how do we do this?  How do we nurture a constant sense of the companionship of God in our lives?  A recent conversation in a church hallway with four friends focused on this very question.  Cary told about an overseas flight he took to Ukraine.  Hours into the flight, he left his seat and walked the aisles to exercise his legs.  Eventually he bumped into a man who was exercising his soul.  The man, clasping a small prayer rug, was a Muslim seeking someplace on the airplane to engage in “salat.”  Like one-and-a-half billion Muslims worldwide, this traveler was dedicated to an exercise of praying five times each day.  Even on an international flight, he was trying to tend to this prayerful practice.  While “salat” serves many purposes, above all, it simply reminds the one praying that God is present and that God seeks ongoing interaction.  In a CNN profile on this practice, one Muslim shared: “It reminds you about God throughout your day.  At fixed intervals, no matter how busy you are, all of a sudden you have to take out a few minutes and you’re remembering, OK, why am I really here?”[i] After Cary shared this story, my friend Joe remarked, “I need something like that.  I know when I’m working it’s hard for me to think about anything but work.  I need something that reminds me of God throughout the day.”

Can you connect with his statement?  We so often forget God during our day.  We need some way to unforget God.  Some way to turn our mind back to him when our thoughts have wandered from him.  Some way, as Brother Lawrence counseled, to “Forget him the very least you can.”[ii]

This is one of the provisions of the Examen.  It creates a structure through which we are not only reminded of God through the day, but we are guided, in very specific ways, to interact deeply and significantly with God throughout the day.  Whether it is practiced twice-a-day (e.g., morning and noon), or three-times-a-day (e.g., morning, noon, and evening), the Examen pauses all other activity and invites us to drink deeply of God and his Spirit.

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[ii] Brother Lawrence & Frank Laubach, Practicing His Presence The Library of Spiritual Classics, Volume 1 (Christian Books Publishing House, 1988), 91.

There is one final fundamental key to laying down the air-hockey and following Jesus out the door to his larger-than-life-sized plan: focus on training harder rather than trying harder.  Dallas Willard writes, “As disciples, we are not trying to be different people (which is the road to failure, legalism, and bondage), but we are training to be different people.” You will not become victorious over vice by just trying harder.  You will not subdue sin merely through brute force.  As you peer up the slopes of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, do not think “If I just push myself really hard I’ll make it to the top.”

Effort is required, as we learned earlier.  But no significant spiritual growth takes place through effort alone.  The effort must be expended in the right way.  What’s called for is not trying harder, but training harder.  John Ortberg succinctly states, “Respecting the distinction between training and merely trying is the key to transformation in every aspect of life.”

Most of us have accepted this truth in the realm of physical fitness.  I have a group of friends who regularly run the half-marathon or full marathon in Memphis which serves as a fund raiser for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  Many of these friends have run the race multiple times.  And each year they enter into a familiar rhythm.  Months prior to the event they begin training.  While they may have been actively running throughout the year, in order to prepare for the Saint Jude half or full marathon, they know they must do something different.  They must train.

Slowly, methodically, over a period of months, they run longer distances and log greater numbers of miles.  At training’s beginning, their “long run” may be only eight miles.  Two weeks later it’s ten miles.  Not long after that the “long run” progresses to twelve miles.  Through the training, they are able to gradually build up their endurance, strength, and capacity for discomfort.  When race-day arrives, they are again able to do what they could not do just a few months earlier—run 13.1 or 26.2 miles.

Once in a while, a friend will try to by-pass training.  A few years ago after the half-marathon, I exited the baseball stadium where the race finishes and began walking to my car.  I saw one of my running-friends sitting on some steps near the stadium’s entrance.  She was pale, sweaty, and breathing hard.  “What’s wrong?” I asked.  The race had completed over an hour ago.  Her body should have recovered by now.  She confessed, “I didn’t make time to train this year.  I only had a handful of long runs and figured I could just push myself to the finish line this year.  Boy, was that a mistake!”  She didn’t train hard in the months prior to the race and instead just tried hard on the day of the race.  It left her body such a wreck she vowed never to do that again.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is showing us the entire race.  It’s not a 5K.  It’s a marathon.  Complete the 26.2 race and this is what your life will look like.  But this race is not something we can complete in our present state of spiritual fitness.  We must humbly accept that none of us possesses the spiritual muscle and stamina to successfully cross that finish line.  Instead, we must enter into training.  We must discover ways to slowly, methodically, and intentionally build up our spiritual muscles over time.

This is precisely the purpose of the spiritual disciplines.  Engage in them and eventually, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, you will become capable of doing what you may have never been able to do before.  You will find yourself living into this amazing vision Jesus has for your life.

Paul points to this progressive growth when he urges the Philippians to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phi. 2:12-13 ESV).  We do not work for our salvation.  But we do work out our salvation, partnering with the God who gives us both the desire (will) and ability (work) to live “for his good pleasure.”  Spiritual training is how we work out the saving work of God within us.

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