"Lent" (Part 2)

There are three important things to focus upon during the Lenten Season: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. While each of these is important throughout the year, Lent provides the perfect opportunity to renew ourselves freshly within each area. Yesterday we looked at almsgiving. Today we will look at prayer. Jesus’ instruction in the Sermon on the Mount gives us some helpful insight.

And now about prayer. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you. When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don't be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! (Matthew 6:5-8 NLV).

Standing at the South Pole is like being in the eye of a hurricane. It's deceivingly calm. The quietness seems inconsistent with the fact that mighty winds originate there. As warm air from the equator flows in over the polar region, it descends, becomes cold and dense, and sinks to the frigid surface. Since the ice-covered plateau tapers off toward the oceans, and no mountains or other obstacles stand in the way, gravity pulls the heavy, cold air down the smooth slopes. The wind picks up tremendous speed as it moves northward toward the equator. Gradually it is heated by the sun and begins to rise, creating a circular pattern to drive the earth's weather machine that is so vital to our existence. For Christians, quiet times of prayer and worship also give rise to great power. They might seem non-productive because nothing appears to be happening. Our urge is almost compulsive: move, do, work, worry, and struggle. Yet at the heart of accomplishing things for God must be that regular experience of calm followed by an unobstructed flow of energy.

Use the next few weeks of Lent to consciously slow yourself down spiritually. Read one chapter of the Proverbs each day. Find one principle of wisdom revealed in it and think through the application of it in your life for that day. Then, pray. The following is a prayer written by Francis of Assisi, one of the great saints of Christian history.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console, To be understood as to understand, To be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Tomorrow we’ll look at fasting. Today, however, renew yourself in your prayer life.