Life is wonderful. Life is full of opportunity. Life is full of challenges. Life is full of set backs. Life gets hard sometimes. All of the wonder, opportunity, challenge, setback and hardness just wears me out. I find I constantly need to restore myself, or perhaps more accurately, I need to be restored.
For me this means I spend a lot of time is RESTORATIVE PRAYER.
Prayer is broken down into many different genres: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, Petition and Waiting (what I call RESTORATIVE PRAYER) to name a few.
Isaiah 40:31 says, “But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.“
The word WAIT (QUAVA) is perhaps the most important word for me when it comes to prayer. WAIT in Isaiah 40:31 does not mean to sit and wait like you wait for a bus (although sometimes that is what it looks like when you are actually doing the work of waiting). It is waiting as in hoping. It is waiting as in expecting, but it is also an intentional twisting together as in braiding two or three chords together until the individual rope (that would be me) is strengthened by the addition of another rope or three ropes (those additional ropes would be God as in the Trinity).
As I said life wears me out until I am just too tired to keep going. RESTORATIVE PRAYER is that which makes me strong again.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE.
- I FIND A QUIET PLACE.
- I TAKE MY BIBLE, MY PHONE, MY PEN, MY AGENDA AND A JOURNAL
- I GET INTO A COMFORTABLE POSITION, FOR ME USUALLY SITTING IN A COMFORTABLE CHAIR OR LAYING DOWN
- I SET A TIMER FOR AT LEAST 10 MINUTES BUT USUALLY 20 OR 30 MINUTES
- I PUT ON EITHER SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC OR MY BIBLE APP IN AUDIBLE FORMAT.
- I CLOSE MY EYES AND SETTLE BACK TO LISTEN.
- I TRY TO COMPLETELY RELAX. SOMETIMES I HAVE TO PRACTICE “HANDS DOWN PALMS UP AS I BEGIN.
WHAT HAPPENS:
- Sometime I come to the waiting with a thousand things on my mind. In time like this my racing thoughts jump from issue to issue that I have to deal with. This is what the agenda is for. I turn to my “TO DO LIST” and I begin to write down all the things my racing mind thinks are more important than seeking God and His strength. Sometimes I write down the time when I need to do the jobs alongside each item in my list. This step sometimes takes me five or ten minutes.
- Sometimes if my mind is really racing I have to practice “HANDS DOWN PALMS UP”.
- As my mind slows down I begin to feel the weariness of my spirit, soul and body move in. Now I can begin to focus in on the music I am playing or the Scripture.
- Often at this point I fall asleep. I never feel guilty about this. It is part of the waiting, a necessary part of being restored. I trust that the Word of God or the worship music is getting into my subconscious. It is also why I set a timer.
- Usually I will awaken before the timer and then I begin praising the Lord. As I do I spend a moment contemplating if there was anything I thought about or dreamt about during the beginning of my waiting period that may have been from God. Often there is. I write that down in my journal.
- When the timer goes off I consider whether I need to go again. Many times I reset the timer. Sometimes if I am very weary or stressed I need to repeat the whole cycle, but if I have been mindful of my personal care, I can usually focus on items 3 and 5 the second time around (Usually the second time around I opt for the Bible app over music as I am ready now to receive deep truth).
RESTORATIVE PRAYER is one of the most essential spiritual disciplines I practice.
Have you ever tried RESTORATIVE PRAYER?
Notes From the Vicarage 