Prayer as Groaning

One would think, being in a program called Spiritual Formation and Soul Care, your prayer life would flourish. It's actually the opposite. It seems that right now Keri and I are asking a lot more critical questions about prayer and how it "works" in our Christian walk.

Sometimes this leads to frustration in our own walks with God. Oh, we want to be so committed, and would like to direct souls into a perfect Christian life. The truth is though, that Christians, just like anyone else, are very messy people. As a couple and individuals, we are at times messy, distracted, unreliable, confused, doubt-filled, immature, irrational, fearful, complain-y and tired. And, with Jesus' death and resurrection in view, this is where prayer must begin.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit,groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies...

Confused and far from God

We live in a highly rational culture. Everyone has reasons for what they do. (or at least think they do!). Things like statistics, science and logic fuel our reasons for living the way we do. Even now science has reasons for appreciating beauty, playing and even forgiving! These are things that people used to do without thought, yet now they are being justified by reason. Whether or not we know it yet, we're culturally in a place of longing for the irrational. 









Francis Shaffer says, "Whether it is the existentialist speaking,...or eastern mysticism...[or the drug addict]...we find a uniform need for an irrational experience to make some sense of life."

God often uses various situations in life to bring us to the edge of rationality; to bring us to Someone bigger than us. There are lots of ways to categorize how God does this, but one helpful way is through orientation, disorientation and reorientation. This is a simple way to address the experiences God is bringing you through. 

Orientation--areas God is doing something completely new in your life. Areas of conversation, previously depraved or lost. 

Disorientation--areas that are in disrupting confusion. Areas of upheaval, churning. Areas that feel irrational and out of control.

Reorientation--areas  that God is bringing renewal. Areas of rest, confirmation, direction, trust, and steadfast peace. 





God is desire to bring us to a personal encounter with Jesus. It is hard to rationalize how or why or when, but allowing God to dwell in irrational categories will give Him room to be Himself: infinite and good. And we may just realize that "in Him we live and move and have our being".

*borrowing Demarest’s paradigms for structuring The Seasons of the Soul

Prayer Project #2

Talk to the Lord about each of these things:

 1. Where do you see orientation in your life right now? That is, what is God doing that is brand new? Or, what was your time of orientation to the Christian life like? (20 min)

 2. Where do you see disorientation in your life right now? That is, what is disruptive and confused or changing? What are the struggles or doubts? (20 min)

 3. Where do you see reorientation in your life right now? What is being renewed? What is being deepened? (20 min)

Prayer Projects

A powerful part of our program at the Institute of Spiritual Formation is prayer projects. They are assigned weekly as an hour a prayer where we intentionally address specific areas of our formation with God. There are usually 4-5 questions to provoke reflection. At the end we journal what God has done in the time which helps to integrate and reflect on the experience.

Though one can learn these things apart from a project like these, this is an intentional way of encountering the living God through personal life. This has begun to shaped our prayer lives in a few ways:

Establishes Past as a Work of God:
Re-examining our lives with the Spirit of God often brings up unplanned things, also it establishes our past as a work of God (we often assume He hasn't participated in our past, other than allowing it!), and grants divine significance to seemingly ordinary moments.

Starts Prayerful Conversation:

One of the greatest obstacles in prayer happens when we present God with the image of ourselves we want Him to see, rather that who we really are in truth. Praying over areas of our lives opens us to conversation with God. These types of conversations intensify His relevance and involvement in our daily lives.

Living with the Living God:

As we talk with Him, we learn to live with Him. This gives us immediate experiential access to His truths from scripture. We learn to discern His voice from our own (and other competing voices in the world). And as we experience His love, we also experience Him lifting sin, shame and guilt off our shoulders in truth.

*We will post the prayer projects for our Spring semester for the next few weeks, please join us if you'd like in praying over these areas of life!

Here is Prayer Project #1

One Hour:

a.            Present yourself to the Lord.  What is in your heart these days?  (15 min)

b.            What did you hope your journey would be as you started following Christ?  What were you hoping for?  What was your roadmap?  (15 min)

c.            What has the Spirit done in you since coming following Christ?  What has your journey been?  (15 min)

d.            Be open to the Lord and listen.  What comes up?  (15 min) 

Prayers of Intention

Over the course of the next 4 weeks, we are assigned to read/pray through the "Prayers of Intention" as shown below. We are to do it Monday through Friday, right when we wake up before we even get out of bed. We are only to spend about 3 minutes each morning on it. At the end of the 4 weeks we are to write up a 2 page reflection on what the time was like. Though sometimes we can be resistant to structured prayer, let's prayer for the Spirit to be active, moving, and work in our hearts as we dialogue with God. Don't be afraid of what may come up...bring your whole heart to Him. He isn't afraid of anything. Even if you are mad at God or don't even know Him, He delights in you & wants you exactly where you are at. 

Join with us in your first 3 minutes of your day!

Ways to Pray without Ceasing 1 Thess. 5:17

Dr. John Coe

To protect the heart from moralism and the flesh

                                                                           To protect the heart from under-effort and the flesh

                                                                      To open to the filling of the Spirit in all things and no longer be alone

1. Prayer of Presenting Oneself as a Sacrifice (Rom. 12:1-2): the spiritual discipline of presenting oneself to God as a living sacrifice, open to Him and His will in all things.

          Prayer of Intention: "Lord, I am here, I present myself to you. Here I am."

48 Hour Silent Retreat in Big Sur

Keri and I ventured on a 48 hour silent retreat, Tuesday through Thursday last week. Now that might sound daunting, but it truly rested us and blessed us, as you will see.

It was at the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, as you drive up the cliffs on Hwy 1 from San Luis Obispo. It is catholic, and yes, there are monks there.  They were really kind and hospitable. 

Week 5- Prayer Projects

Below is this Week's Prayer Projects. Sorry we got a little behind from last week!  I just posted Week 4 Prayer Projects as well. You can also find a listing on our blog of all the Prayer Projects. I condensed the list into links, so it wouldn't be as overwhelming.

We are finishing up our blog entry now reflecting on our lecture, so we will post that soon!

Also, one of our friends in class has recorded all the Dr. Coe's lectures. He will be giving them to us this next week, so we will put up audio versions of the lectures we hear in class! If you would like to have a visual, feel free to watch his general lectures through youtube because he generally covers the same material.

NEXT week, we are going on our 48 hour Silent Retreat! (Tuesday-Thursday). We are looking

Week 4- Prayer Projects

1. Intro to Spiritual Formation Prayer Project (60 mins)

(15 min) In my tradition of Christianity, were we people of the Word? Spirit? Both? For good or for bad, what did we become? Where was my community (at church) at? Was the focus on prayer, teaching, knowledge, etc?What was the impact on your community and on you?

(15 min) Since you were a Christian, was your community more focused on knowledge of God or knowledge of self? What did I become? What were your parents?

(15 min) Were they open to all the other learning styles? Was there a desire for pyschology, science, etc? Or were they only interested in what was relevant like theology? How did it affect you?

(15 min) How was your community based on Spiritual Theology? If knowledge of the Word was central, how does this really work in life? How did it shape the community? How did it shape you?

2. Intro to Retreat Prayer Project

 Praying with Scripture – Divine Reading

Week 3- Prayer Projects

1. Intro to Spiritual Formation Prayer Project (60 mins)

"Most of what we do in our courses are subordinate ends, things good to be learned or mastered in themselves but also as a means...leading to the love of God and neighbor. Since all we do in class is an end yet also a means to love, the class structure and curriculum is a kind of spiritual discipline in itself, a training in love. Consequently, spirituality should no longer be primarily designated a co-curricular, or merely a personal matter, in the Christian University. This split between the curricular and co-curricular perhaps explains why in practice we and our students can be tempted to divorce soul work form the bustle of course work, lectures, and assignments....may be employed...to bring out the spiritual significance and application of course content, a content so integrative (in potential) that often screams for some experiential project of prayer, devotion, soul work or service to transform it to its Kingdom end."

15 min- God, to what degree did my former educational experience, was in the flesh? Did I try to find an identity in it? How much did I blow off? What kind of person did I become as a result of my educational experiences? How will this effect me at ISF?

Prayer Projects

We created a PAGE on this blog called "Prayer" which describes what our Prayer Projects are and will be updated each week.

Checkout what we are doing this week!

Update on life:

-Keri got a 10hr job in the ISF office as an OA (OA, yea, OA-that's for redwoodians :) She will be assisting taking phone calls, scheduling, and answering questions within the department. Her hours will be on Wednesday and Thursday.

-Since we have been home from Hume, we have been eating LOTS of fresh veggies and fruit. Our bodies are thanking us :)

-In Total, we have read 404 pages in the past 1 1/2 weeks for school. Ha, crazy!

-Breaks we take after a long day of reading include: tea, popcorn, occasional coconut milk ice cream, and movie/book.

-We just watched What Women Want. It was fun :)


-David and Keri

Week 2- Prayer Project

Week 2:  Prayer Project #2 – Solitude and Silence

My soul, wait in silence for God only,

For my hope is from Him.

He only is my rock and my salvation,

My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.

- Psalm 62: 5 & 6

In repentance and rest you shall be saved,

In quietness and trust is your strength.

- Isaiah 30: 15

True religion disposes persons to be much alone in solitary places for

holy meditation and prayer. - Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards

In silence we learn to ask the right questions about God, about the world, and about ourselves.

Without silence we become so many `tinkling gongs and clanging cymbals.'

- N.W Goodacre, Dictionary of Christian Spirituality

Silence and Solitude

Week 1 Prayer Project

Week 1: Prayer Project #1 - Personal Foundations of Ministry

For this Prayer Project, you will need to read “Biblical Theology of Intentional

Character Development” (the first reading assignment available in the Library e-Reserves). Please plan to make a copy of the article so that you have it available as you do the assignment.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the

fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

Ephesians 3:14-21

Our hope and prayer for you as you begin your time at Talbot and begin Personal Foundations of Ministry, echoes Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians. To assist you in making yourself available to the work of God in your life we have designed a series of Prayer Projects and Journal assignments for you to complete during this semester. Our hope is that these times of prayer, Scripture meditation, and reflection on your life will assist you in being “rooted and grounded in love” and “strengthened in the

inner man”.

Prayer and Journal

1. Find a quiet, comfortable place where you will not be interrupted. (approx 45 min) Not driving in your car - no phone, TV, music, etc. Complete all of this project in one sitting.