Week 1 - Pause
Fortitude Curriculum
P.R.A.Y.
Pause, Rejoice, Ask, Yield
Jesus said…”When you pray…”
To start we must stop. To move forward we must pause. This is the first step in a deeper prayer life: Put down your wish list and wait. Sit quietly . “Be still and know that I am God.” Become fully present in place and time so that your scattered senses can recenter themselves on God’s eternal presence. Stillness and silence prepare your mind and prime your heart to pray from a place of greater peace, faith, and adoration. In fact, these are themselves important forms of prayer.
Tonight’s session is PAUSE! Pause in our prayer life is just like pause in our daily life.
For example:
- Asking your children to take a time out or quiet time.
- Using the controller on our phone or TV Remote to pause while we answer the phone or let the dog out.
- For those of you who are married it might be date night when it’s just you and your wife without all the noise of the children, sports or other distractions.
What is PAUSE:
Pause is intentionally pivoting in another direction to spend time during prayer in silence and listening for God’s voice. It is a focus on listening, experiencing the presence of God’s love, and learning to hear His voice.
Pause in Silence. “Silence is arguably the most counter-cultural prayer tool. Our world is increasingly becoming one loud reverberating echo-chamber and the fact that silence scares most people more than it appeals to them shows the brokenness of our world.”
From The Prayer Course @ prayercourse.org
“Maybe our greatest gift to the world (and to ourselves in the process) is to become a “non-anxious presence.” Mark Sayers, from Red Church in Sydney Australia
Jesus' example of going to a solitary place (Luke 4:42) challenges us to actively turn the volume down in our lives. This element of prayer encourages us to learn how to be alone with God.
Psalm 46:10
“Be Still, and know that I am God”
If we desire to take the first step in a deeper prayer life we must set aside our list of requests & wishes and center our spirit and souls on the Lord. The word of God instructs us to put on the mind of Christ. Jesus took time in His life to escape to the quiet and solitude to embrace the Father’s presence and adore His majesty.
You may have heard of contemplative prayer or centering our hearts fully on Him and silently sitting before Him to become fully in a place and time so that we can take our fragmented senses and recenter them in God's eternal presence. “Our Father, hallowed is your name.” He is a Father that desires us to focus on Him to reshape our every moment and future fully on Him. He is Father, Holy in all He does and bids us to completely focus on Him so that we can prepare our mind and prime our hearts to pray from a place of greater peace, faith and adoration. Stillness and silence are a means to find that place. It is not an escape hatch or a way of running away from life or our life struggles.
Silence and stillness is the beginning step to lean into the presence of God. Our silence is a response to Him in adoration, cleansing and becoming holy as He is holy. Separating ourselves and sitting at His feet conditions us to then rejoice in Him, ask of Him and submit/yield to Him.
When we are fully in His presence whole heartedly understanding of His fatherhood and His holiness we are free to experience a place to PRAY -rejoice, ask and yield to Him.
Psalm 131:2-3
My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty:
I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.
PAUSE: Connection to The Lord’s Prayer
Why do you think the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray? These men and women were raised as children in a religious setting that would recite and memorize the Psalms and other prayers of the scriptures. They had seen Jesus go to a place of solitude to be with His Father. They had seen first hand the answers to His prayers in healing and deliverance!
- The instruction is found in the preamble to the Lord’s Prayer - Matthew 6:5 “When you prayer do not be like the hypocrites …….But when you pray, go into the room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
- Matthew 6:8 - “And your Father already knows what you need before you ask Him” - encourages less talk, even silence and listening.
- The essence of PAUSE is found directly in the Lord’s Prayer in vs 9-10.
- “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
- What is your initial reaction to the practice of PAUSE? Does it excite you, scare you or bore you?
- Is this something you have practiced already in your personal prayer life? Share your experience.
- It can be difficult to make time to pause and contemplate God. What rhythms could you put in place to grow this type of prayer in your life?
Additional Scripture References: 1 Samuel 3; Psalm 1; Psalm 19; Psalm 62
Week 1 - Pause
Fortitude Curriculum
P.R.A.Y.
Pause, Rejoice, Ask, Yield
Jesus said…”When you pray…”
To start we must stop. To move forward we must pause. This is the first step in a deeper prayer life: Put down your wish list and wait. Sit quietly . “Be still and know that I am God.” Become fully present in place and time so that your scattered senses can recenter themselves on God’s eternal presence. Stillness and silence prepare your mind and prime your heart to pray from a place of greater peace, faith, and adoration. In fact, these are themselves important forms of prayer.
Tonight’s session is PAUSE! Pause in our prayer life is just like pause in our daily life.
For example:
- Asking your children to take a time out or quiet time.
- Using the controller on our phone or TV Remote to pause while we answer the phone or let the dog out.
- For those of you who are married it might be date night when it’s just you and your wife without all the noise of the children, sports or other distractions.
What is PAUSE:
Pause is intentionally pivoting in another direction to spend time during prayer in silence and listening for God’s voice. It is a focus on listening, experiencing the presence of God’s love, and learning to hear His voice.
Pause in Silence. “Silence is arguably the most counter-cultural prayer tool. Our world is increasingly becoming one loud reverberating echo-chamber and the fact that silence scares most people more than it appeals to them shows the brokenness of our world.”
From The Prayer Course @ prayercourse.org
“Maybe our greatest gift to the world (and to ourselves in the process) is to become a “non-anxious presence.” Mark Sayers, from Red Church in Sydney Australia
Jesus' example of going to a solitary place (Luke 4:42) challenges us to actively turn the volume down in our lives. This element of prayer encourages us to learn how to be alone with God.
Psalm 46:10
“Be Still, and know that I am God”
If we desire to take the first step in a deeper prayer life we must set aside our list of requests & wishes and center our spirit and souls on the Lord. The word of God instructs us to put on the mind of Christ. Jesus took time in His life to escape to the quiet and solitude to embrace the Father’s presence and adore His majesty.
You may have heard of contemplative prayer or centering our hearts fully on Him and silently sitting before Him to become fully in a place and time so that we can take our fragmented senses and recenter them in God's eternal presence. “Our Father, hallowed is your name.” He is a Father that desires us to focus on Him to reshape our every moment and future fully on Him. He is Father, Holy in all He does and bids us to completely focus on Him so that we can prepare our mind and prime our hearts to pray from a place of greater peace, faith and adoration. Stillness and silence are a means to find that place. It is not an escape hatch or a way of running away from life or our life struggles.
Silence and stillness is the beginning step to lean into the presence of God. Our silence is a response to Him in adoration, cleansing and becoming holy as He is holy. Separating ourselves and sitting at His feet conditions us to then rejoice in Him, ask of Him and submit/yield to Him.
When we are fully in His presence whole heartedly understanding of His fatherhood and His holiness we are free to experience a place to PRAY -rejoice, ask and yield to Him.
Psalm 131:2-3
My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty:
I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.
PAUSE: Connection to The Lord’s Prayer
Why do you think the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray? These men and women were raised as children in a religious setting that would recite and memorize the Psalms and other prayers of the scriptures. They had seen Jesus go to a place of solitude to be with His Father. They had seen first hand the answers to His prayers in healing and deliverance!
- The instruction is found in the preamble to the Lord’s Prayer - Matthew 6:5 “When you prayer do not be like the hypocrites …….But when you pray, go into the room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
- Matthew 6:8 - “And your Father already knows what you need before you ask Him” - encourages less talk, even silence and listening.
- The essence of PAUSE is found directly in the Lord’s Prayer in vs 9-10.
- “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
- What is your initial reaction to the practice of PAUSE? Does it excite you, scare you or bore you?
- Is this something you have practiced already in your personal prayer life? Share your experience.
- It can be difficult to make time to pause and contemplate God. What rhythms could you put in place to grow this type of prayer in your life?
Additional Scripture References: 1 Samuel 3; Psalm 1; Psalm 19; Psalm 62