I have never known a person like Susanne Schuberth who prays about everything all day long. Father and Jesus are her best friends. I hope you are touched by our need to pray in her words in this article.
Entering the Promised Haven
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)
This is another entry Michael Clark and I wrote together which springs from our own experiences with prayer and its effects on our soul and spirit.
It has been for three days now that I, Susanne, wanted to write a blog post about prayer. But since I had neither time nor inspiration to do so, I only gathered a few quotes on prayer yesterday in the late evening. Afterwards I shared these quotes with Michael and we prayed about writing together about how our times alone with God affect us. We realized that be both usually wake up in the flesh and urgently need to pray in order to feel God’s presence in our life again. Michael made an observation I really liked. He said, “I need to pray first thing or my day is trashed.” Yes, indeed! Here are the quotes…
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A Wilderness Voice 
What a wonderful reminder of what prayer is, Susanne. Thank you for your inspiration. Like you pointed out, Jesus did not say “Pray these words…,” but rather “Pray after this manner, ‘Our Father who are in heaven…'” The Lord’s prayer is not a magical incantation to be recited, but an example of what prayer is and as an example it can take many forms as we communicate with Him throughout our day about everything we encounter and need. It is good to remember that our Father is a friend that is closer than a brother and talk with Him often about everything and to also listen to His reply. Also, it is good to remember that He is that friend that is closer than a brother and listen to what is on His heart as well.
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That was a sweet introduction by you, Michael. Very touching to read for me! Thank you so much for the reblog, my dear brother, and thanks a bunch for inspiring me to write more about my own prayer experiences in our common article.
Yes, I like what you said about Jesus’ advice to ‘pray after this manner’ instead of taking TLP as a (legally) fixed pattern to pray through as it still happens in Catholicism in the sense of “God might hear you if you pray this or that as often as possible!” What a devilish lie has been spread there and what a burden for those who were forced to believe this!!
Susanne 🐱
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You are welcome, Susanne. It was the truth, too!
Yes, there was nothing more boring to me when I was a Catholic kid than praying the “rosary” — fifty “Hail Maries” and five “Our Fathers” plus the five other prayers in the straight stretch and five “Glory Be’s” Then if you were really righteous you did the whole thing it three times! Yikes! We were also taught by the nuns that God was too holy for us to pray to Him directly — the dirty little sinners we were — so we prayed to Mary and she passed it up the chain of command to Jesus and if it got that far and He agreed with our petition He would pass it on to God. Feeeew! What bondage! Imagine how surprised I was once I received Christ and started reading the Bible with the light of the Holy Spirit bring it to life!
“For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (Rom 8:15-16, nrs)
“Whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.” (1John 3:20-23, nrs)
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YIKES! That was truly horrible how you were raised by the nuns, Michael! 😥
I am so happy that the law and tradition lie behind us and that freedom is ours in Christ – and only there. 🙂
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Yes, dear sister! I don’t miss ANYTHING about my times in the religions of men. I am now Christ’s free man and you are His free woman! I am so glad we know one another IN Him. Hallelujah!
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Amen, my brother. I am glad that we may know one another IN Him, even forever. Boy, what a perpective is that!! 🙂
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The view from inside Christ is absolutely wonderful!!!
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YESSS! 😀
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Thank you for the blog on prayer. I am so grateful that we have been invited to pray. It is such a privilege to commune with the Creator and Savior. I tend to pray in silence. However, I remember being in a situation on one occasion when I was afraid and praying silently. The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, “Pray out loud”. I responded, ” Lord, I don’t want to pray in front of the heathen”. However, I realized that I needed to obey God and not let fear rule me. I obeyed, and He immediately answered.
Like the disciples, I say, “Lord, teach me to pray”, and I add, give me the grace to do so.
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Thanks, Pat! It is good to hear from you again. You brought up something that is good. The disciples said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And He did! I think that learning to pray about everything is much more important that the “how to” methods of prayer that so many teach.
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1Thess 5:16-18, nrs)
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Beautiful! Prayer is the answer to so many things. I pray without ceasing and I still do not pray enough. Unlocking, understanding prayer is a lifetime pursuit. One thing I do know, God answers prayers, not always precisely as we expected, but He always hears them and He always answers, and often He will most kindly grant us some of the things we may desire, the secret desires of our heart. He is a good Father, He wants to bless us.
Listening for those answers has been perhaps the most difficult for me. Our minds can play tricks on us, so for example, prayers for good results during a doctors visit, and then we get the good results we wanted, so we tend to just dismiss it like, “oh well, I guess the problem wasn’t as serious as I thought.” So easily forgotten were all those desperate prayers prior to the visit!
I have had to learn how to grab onto those answered prayers, to take note of them, and to express appreciation and gratitude. Having the eyes to see and take note of how God has answered our prayers, is really delightful.
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Gabrielle, yes, I believe that God is a good Father and as such He does not spoil His kids. When what we ask for is to get things to heap on the lusts of our flesh, He is not apt to give them to us for He looks at the long term effects of what we ask for. He would rather have us happy and comfortable for eternity than give us all our creature comforts now and lose us in the long run. Or as James put it…
“Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?… And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.” (Jas 4:1-3, nrs)
Being grateful for what God sends us as answers to our prayers is a good thing. I remember my dad drilling it into my head to always be courteous to grownups and especially to thank them for anything they gave me, even a glass of water. I think that as we become more mature in our relationship with the Father we will find ourselves asking for less things for our own worldly well-being and He will start hearing more from us in our prayers concerning those things which are eternal and that are for HiS kingdom, “…thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen”
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