A Few Thoughts About Prayer

Recently, I've been rereading Richard Foster's Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. In one part, he writes about organizing your prayer life. He talks about the monastic schedule from St. Benedict where Benedictines schedule prayer three times a day. In this section, he proposes something that seems strange to someone who grew up in the church and was told to have a quiet time every day.

He says that Rural life is structured around a daily cycle, a person awakes and has a list of chores to do and goes through their checklist throughout the day. Urban life, however, is set up on a weekly cycle. We go to work on Monday, have weekly meetings that occur the same time on the same day every week, and work towards Friday and the weekend. He therefore suggests that to be realistic in our expectations having a prayer life, urbanites (and I assume suburbanites) may want to consider setting apart a block of time weekly for prayer. He suggests that trying a daily regimen may be too unattainable of a goal.

To this I have mixed emotions. On the positive side, I like the freedom this advice allows. Foster may be writing to those who may be trying to work in prayer time for the first time and struggle to find time. Right now, we have a five-month-old, and finding time every day to do many things is difficult. 

I remember growing up I was told to have time alone with God every day. If I wasn't able to do this every day I would feel so guilty I would almost be paralyzed in my walk. This approach allows flexibility and freedom. We are not bound by Pharisaical rules of praying daily.

On the other end, I do think that prayer is a vital part of the Christian life. While I think God's love for us doesn't diminish if we have trouble working it in a day or two, I also have a goal to try and spend time with God every day, even if it is only a few moments in my car before I go into the office.

Foster's point is to find something that works for you and make it a routine. No matter how frequent you plan it, if you make it a routine, you're more likely to get it done.


What do you think? Can a person be just as close to God if they pray for two and a half hours on Saturday instead of praying half an hour every day?