Chapter 24

Human beings are thoroughly embodied creatures who also have spiritual capacity. In human beings, flesh and spirit go hand in hand. Which is why we should take our bodies seriously and care for them. And also why we should pray. Prayer is one of several disciplines we can put into practice to grow in intimacy with God. In prayer we think about God and speak to God. We must believe that God is there for us, that God hears us, that God responds to us.

Psalm 103; Luke 11:1-13; Luke 18:1-14; John 17

We tend by nature to divide our lives into separate categories that have little to do with each other. We have our home life, our work life, our school life, our hobby life, our recreational life, and so on. We do this with religion, too. We do religion on Sunday mornings or at a Bible study, but it has little impact on what we think and how we behave on the golf course or at the bank or in the TV room. The Christian faith is meant to spill over into all of life and into everyday life. God makes no distinction between formal religious activities, like attendance at worship, and secular activities, like doing homework, shopping for groceries, teaching grade school, or working out at the gym. God is Lord of all of life. Prayer is one discipline that connects the world of formal religion to the world of everyday life. The spiritual exercise for this chapter is to invite God into your ordinary life, as if you were talking with God about life as you experience it from day to day. Pray over every activity you do, every place you go, every person you meet, every decision you make, every challenge you face. Try for a week to pray through your day in the morning, imagining what you will be doing and experiencing. Locate God in those various settings and circumstances and relationships. Attune yourself to what God is doing and then step into it. Invite him in.

What did you learn about prayer from the Bible study, from the chapter, and from the spiritual exercise? What questions do you have? How do you see yourselves experimenting with the life of prayer? What are you currently praying about?

John 15:1-5