In modern evangelicalism we seem to value a more individualized
spirituality. There is great emphasis on personal Bible study and quiet times,
but set and structured prayers have been lost. Praying at a set time in a
structured way seems to fly in the face of our highly personal, self-focused
culture.
My daughter spent much of her 5th grade year studying Church
history—specifically monks—and she wanted to see it all first hand. So, our
family headed to a Benedictine monastery in Tulsa, OK, for a three-day
spiritual retreat. At this abbey, the monks follow a strict communal prayer life,
praying in Latin seven times a day. They allow guests to come and participate
in the prayer times as a spiritual retreat.
It was impressive to see the discipline and rigor of the monks.
They get up at 4:45 every day and gather for prayer seven times a day. We were
able to go to five of these prayer times and they gave us just a small taste of
what that would be like. As I left the abbey, I thought about having more serious
and fixed times of prayer for myself.
Prayer is hard work. It isn’t easy and it doesn’t come natural.
Left to ourselves, it is easy to forsake prayer for other activities. While we
know that prayer is important and valuable to our spiritual lives, it is just difficult
to make it a consistent part of our schedule. God knew this human struggle;
therefore, He set up structured prayer and worship to enable His people to better
connect with Him.
The Psalmist says in Psalm 119:64, “Seven times a day I praise
you...” In Daniel 6 we see Daniel’s regular practice was to pray three times a
day. Jesus clearly modeled and needed regular times of prayer as he would rise
early in the morning or spend the night praying to His Father (Luke 5:16, 6:12;
Mark 1:35).
This model of structured prayer times continued with
some of the early Church Fathers, Tertullian and Cyprian, who promoted prayer
three times a day. By 530 A.D., Benedict’s Rule was set up where monks prayed
seven times a day, the same Rule the monks in Tulsa follow.
This is only a brief history of how structured prayer is
biblically and historically sound. While there have been different modes and
ways to structure prayer, consistent times are morning and evening prayer. The
best way to start is to consider morning and evening prayer and then just pray
through the Psalms. Below is a schedule to pray through the Psalms in a month.
If you want more structured prayer and a way to connect to the ancient church,
you could consider going through the Book of Common Prayer.
There are many ways we can connect to the Lord, but structured
times of prayer is one of the tried and true methods that the church has consistently
done for centuries.
Resources:
Praying the Psalms https://fullcontactchristianity.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/psalms-bookmarks-2.pdf
Book of Common Prayer http://www.bcponline.org/
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