Table of contents for Morning Prayer
- Why You Should be at Morning Prayer, Part 1
- Why You Should be at Morning Prayer Pt. 2
- Why You Should be at Morning Prayer Pt. 3
- Why You Should be at Morning Prayer Pt. 4
Liturgical prayer is boot camp for life.
The Psalms are our foundational hymnbook, and all of Scripture is our script for life. But liturgical prayer is even more than words and ideas. Going back to the sacrificial system, synagogue worship, and then into the early church, God’s people have always been shaped and formed by habits of prayer that involve the whole person. Lifting hands, kneeling, standing, prostrating, clapping, musical instruments, embracing, kissing, there is a rich biblical treasury for God’s people to draw from to embody prayer. And when we organize the words and actions of our prayers together, this is called a liturgy.
The reason for organizing and planning our prayers is so that we are careful before God, guarding our words and actions, seeking to make them as pleasing as possible to Him. But the point of repetition, the point of repeating many of the same words, many of the same songs, working systematically through Scripture is so that the words and acts of prayer are ingrained in us.
We lift hands to teach our hands to be holy. We kneel to teach our knees to submit to King Jesus. We sing to teach our bodies to rejoice in God. We embrace one another to learn how to love and care for each other.
You need to be at morning prayer because you have enlisted in the army of Christ, and you need to be trained for battle. Faithful, Spirit-filled liturgical prayer is boot camp for life. You are teaching your body and soul and mind to face all of the situations of life oriented to the life of the Father, Son, and Spirit.
elisabeth says
thanks again Toby!….i really need to get back to the way i use to pray…help me! thanks help
Wes Callihan says
Toby, you said, “Lifting hands, kneeling, standing, prostrating, clapping, musical instruments, embracing, kissing, there is a rich biblical treasury for God’s people to draw from to embody prayer.” How does making the sign of the cross into this?
Toby says
Wes, in principle, I don’t have any problem with the sign of the cross. If someone grew up with that as part of the vocabulary of faithfulness they inherited, they should keep it up. And conversely, if someone grew up outside the church and came to the Lord in a community where the sign of the cross is part of that new vocabulary of prayer, then embracing that goes right along with how Jesus transforms lives and gives them new habits and patterns of life through the Spirit. Nor do I have a problem per se with Christians learning from and taking up practices from other traditions within Christendom. At the same time, when Christians are insecure, wobbly, and guilt-ridden it’s the most natural thing in the world to grasp after something new, some new spiritual experience that will assuage the guilt. And I think people in positions of influence and authority have a responsibility to see and guard against the latter while wisely leading towards the former. In our community, there are some from those traditions that practice making the sign of the cross, and we have always encouraged them to feel free to continue do so. But we should also be on guard for those who’d take up the sign of the cross for the same reasons they wear skinny jeans, black rimmed glasses, or only buy organic at the Coop (none of which are problematic in themselves!). Does that help?
Wes Callihan says
Toby, thank you! Yes, that’s helpful.