Patterns and Systems

In order to meet with God it is helpful to have systems that help us meet with Him.

We all know what it’s like to try and pray when we’re feeling sleepy, or groggy, or just plain tired. When we can’t think straight about anything. In those moments it’s so helpful to have a list to remind us about people and situations in our lives.

Just as Christ is Fully Divine and Fully Human, so our life with Christ must not only be strong in the Word (of the Father) and the Life of the Spirit, but it needs to be strengthened by very practical "Earthy", "human", patterns and practices.

It’s up to each of us to put these in place, just as we do in every relationship that we want to develop. I can’t do this for you, and you can’t do it for me.

As Kingdom apprentices we are aiming to be;

• Strong in the Word (of the Father)
• Strong in the Spirit
• Strong in fellowship with Jesus

And we need to be wise in cultivating and establishing systems, rhythms, and patterns in our own lives that facilitate and develop this fellowship with the Triune God.

So it’s wise to develop systems that help us to pray.

For example, it is helpful to keep lists of the people you are praying for and what you’re praying for them; the people you live with, your family, the "people of peace" that you are especially praying will hear and understand the Message of the Kingdom.

But because we are all very different people we each need to work out ways that work for us. What works for you, may not work for your spouse, or your friend, or others in your church.

Here are some ideas (which you may or may not find helpful):

• Pray over photographs of groups of people – your family, your church.
• When you are facing a serious issue write down and articulate your prayer request very carefully (try and pray in line with what Scripture teaches us to pray), and then pray it back to the Father regularly.
• Pray through Prayer Schedules from organizations such as "Open Doors" – they have a special ministry to the persecuted church.
• Keep an "Emergency" list: a list of key things you want to pray about every day.
• Collect some of the great Promises of Scripture so you can pray them for others.
• Or you could pray like the monks did in the cathedral cloisters. They would walk around the cloisters and every time they turned a corner they would move on to the next matter for prayer. It’s one of the most brilliant and inspired ways of praying – practice it for yourself and then try adapting it for yourself as you walk to work.

Having lists and systems can be helpful, but we also need variety.

"There is a time to scatter stones, and there is a time to gather them" (Ecclesiastes 3:5).

It is helpful to collect a folder of papers with prayer requests. But there also need to be times when we pray "freelance".

There is a time for making prayer lists, and there is a time for throwing the prayer lists away; a time for starting all over again and learning from first steps how to approach our Father’s Throne. (My own practice is to throw my prayer system away every "Holy Saturday" – the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Day).