Prayer

Our 4-day orientation session with Christian Reformed World Missions just wrapped up yesterday.  This week of training included several 12-hour days of sessions and interaction, and so the term information overload is not an exaggeration.  I'm definitely still sifting through and processing all that's happened this week and am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to take a few days of vacation with family.

However, one constant theme from the training was the importance of prayer:  both individual, as part of spiritual self growth and care, and communal, as a vital part of building community.  There was also an emphasis on listening prayer - making prayer a two-way communication instead of a one-way conduit of our needs.

I have tended to view prayer as a "nice idea" in the past, but certainly not like the life-giving, life-sustaining, essential discipline that it is.  I've been mystified by those who can spend hours with the Lord in dialogue and I have marveled at the dear elderly saints who have copious prayer lists.

One reason for this disconnect is probably due to how I'm wired.  During the training, we spent some time analyzing our spiritual type and the temperament of our behavior.  Perhaps not too surprising to some of you, I'm an extreme extrovert and I am also an active person:  I like being busy and get energy from this.  Unfortunately, these two behavioral traits mean that focusing on prayer does not come naturally to me.  First of all, it involves sitting still and quieting your mind.  And secondly, prayer is not something tangible like performing an act of service.  We don't always see "results", and if we do, they generally aren't immediate.

I am now convicted otherwise of the importance of prayer.  One of the most meaningful parts of the week was having people pray for us.  I was also very moved by the leadership and example of our devotional leader.  It's clear that she has such an intimate relationship with God, cultivated by years of communion with Him in prayer.

Although we may be nourished spiritually in a particular way or have a particular combination of gifts, God desires that we spend time with Him.  I also believe that he desires us to have a community of people upholding us in prayer.  So all those prayer letters that have gone out with a check box asking for prayer are meaningful and vital to our ministry.  One missionary has a team of people praying with her on Skype once a week.  How amazing and uplifting for her!

One of my greatest take-aways this week is the importance of maintaining spiritual disciplines, particularly in the new area we're going.  We're not going to have a wonderfully supportive pastor and church, at least initially.  We're going to encounter many marginal Christians.  We need to make sure we're spiritually fed and in this season of busyness and transition, that it doesn't get put at the bottom on the to-do list.

I'm thankful for a fresh start in a new country where I can tailor new spiritual rhythms into my new life and give my prayer life the jump-start that it deserves.