Focused Prayer // Moriah Nelson
What desires are “good” and what desires are “bad”? Do our desires even matter when we pray?
When I was taking Introduction Christian Worldview last semester, we read through the book, “You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit” by James K. A. Smith. In this book we read a fair amount about how much our desires influence us. According to this weekend’s reading, I think St. Thomas Aquinas would agree with Smith on many points.
Aquinas writes, on page 8, “Our prayer ought also to be ordered as our desires should be ordered, for prayer is but the expression of desire.”
If our desires are on the world and its consumerist culture, we will most likely have a request-filled prayer where we treat God like a genie, and we are no longer truly seeking the Kingdom of God. On the other hand, if we are truly seeking His Kingdom first (Matthew 6:33, ESV), our prayers will be focused on glorifying God and aligning our desires with the Holy Spirit. I believe the Bible teaches us that this prayer is one that is pleasing to the Lord if it is offered in sincerity and St. Aquinas supports this thought.
I know not all of my prayers follow this pattern and I also believe the Holy Spirit intercedes for Believers when we don't know how we should pray or simply can't pray because the struggle is so hard. However, this is certainly a way we can examine our hearts and see if we are still pursuing Christ.
I know not all of my prayers follow this pattern and I also believe the Holy Spirit intercedes for Believers when we don't know how we should pray or simply can't pray because the struggle is so hard. However, this is certainly a way we can examine our hearts and see if we are still pursuing Christ.
So, how much should we focus on making sure our prayers follow this ideology?
I commented on Zelda and Zane's blog posts.
I loved your post, as usual. As Christians, it is so incredibly important that we pursue Christ's heart above His blessings! If we seek after God with a sincere heart, He will never turn us away. I feel like as much as we can, we should pattern our prayers the way that St. Aquinas says.
ReplyDeleteVery important. When we pray, our desires should be focused on God and His will. God knows our hearts. Praying about the scriptures, God's Word, and praising Him for the endless wisdom and infallibility He gave us to read, is one manner in ordering our desires. Our own words of encouragement towards others are helpful and God hears our cries for help as believers, but reading the Word of God and seeking to reflect upon it in prayer to its divine writer,is phenomenal. I'm not saying to only pray passages of scripture word-for-word, but this mighty Book is the greatest revelation, a true act of grace by the Father in giving it to us. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteLove this post! It is so easy for our prayers to become more like requests to a genie than praising God and desiring what He desires. I love how St. Aquinas calls us out on that. On another note, how wonderful is it to know that the Holy Spirit is there to intercede on our behalf when we cannot find the right words to say!
ReplyDelete-Madison Flowers
Yet again, your solid blog posts never fail to impress and challenge me. You are so right. Do we ever just stop in the midst of the good times and pray thanks and glory to God? Are we really pursuing Him when all we pray to him is if we just ask him to help us in the times of trouble instead of pressing into him even more when our faith is being tested? Man, that gets me going.
ReplyDeleteZane Duke
Wow, what a reminder. What we desire in our hearts are what will come out in our prayers. It is an interesting thought that if we don't feel like we are growing closer to God or unable to feel close to Him through prayer, maybe we should check our hearts. Maybe our daily desires aren't of God and we need to get that back on track! Amazing job!! -Anna Grace Gay
ReplyDelete