In 1549, Thomas Cranmer published the first Book of Common Prayer. In doing so, he gave Christians a helpful pattern for praying at the beginning and end of each day. For centuries, monasteries had divided the day into a number of different hours of prayer. Cranmer gathered much of that tradition into Morning and Evening Prayer, placing the Psalms and the reading of Scripture at its heart. Prayer was intended to become part of the ordinary rhythm of the Christian life.
Nearly five hundred years later, as I sit at my desk writing this, I am struck by this question: what does the pattern of our own prayers look like today?
Of course, many of us are likely to pray most urgently when something goes wrong: when we are anxious, unwell, uncertain, or faced with something beyond our control. Trouble is a great instigator of prayer. And, of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Indeed, the Psalms are full of people crying out to God in distress. Yet if prayer only becomes urgent when life becomes difficult, perhaps our habits reveal that we depend on God rather less than we might imagine. Daniel encourages us to think differently. Even when his life was under threat, we are told he continued to pray three times a day, “giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10). Notice that prayer was already woven into the pattern of his life.
allowing Scripture to reshape both when we pray and what we pray for
Scripture also challenges us to think about what we pray for. When Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, the Lord’s Prayer begins with God: “Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done.” Then we pray for daily bread, forgiveness and protection. Jesus teaches us that our prayers are drawn into his purposes. We see the same thing in Paul’s letters. Have you noticed how Paul regularly prays that Christians would grow in wisdom, love, holiness, endurance and knowledge of God? Those prayers challenge me because they often differ from what I naturally pray for. I might pray for a difficult situation to disappear; Paul often prays that believers would grow through it.
I suppose I am slowly learning that faithful prayer begins with allowing Scripture to reshape both when we pray and what we pray for.
I honestly think that probably means setting aside a regular time each day. You might find it helpful to pray slowly through a Psalm, use the Lord’s Prayer, or take one of Paul’s prayers and pray it for someone else. The aim is not to create another religious burden. We pray because God is our Father and because Christ has opened the way to him. Cranmer understood something important: prayer needs a pattern because our hearts are easily distracted.
So then, a faithful pattern of prayer, shaped by Scripture, slowly teaches us what to desire and how to depend on God in every season.
