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Written by Katie Forbess, President of the Board of Directors of Iron Rose Sister Ministries, with the collaboration of Jubilee Forbess, her daughter
I finally made it to my closet. I have wanted for years to create a place of prayer there. I have always felt the need, but it never happened until I was invited to spend 29 days in quiet prayer, for Advent 2022. I realized that shutting everything else out is so important because it makes you focus on the presence of God. By repeating, “reveal yourself to me,” I was strengthened in remembering that prayer is where you are alone, but with the Creator God. So, through growing up in the church and trusting God through many trying times, I have found the following lessons and am eager to share them. I wrote pages and pages of anecdotes narrating this story, but, like prayer, this doesn’t need to be so complicated.
The only way you can truly learn to pray is by doing it. Jesus told the disciples,
“When you pray, say: "`Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation” (Luke 11:2-4)
Why? They were Jewish men who already prayed. They just needed a little tweaking, because… The Messiah was among them. They needed a little perspective. They needed a reminder of what they should ask for, what they should not ask for, and how forgiving others was the key to being forgiven. Prayer is a command.
My prayer life is what it is because of all the prayers and sermons and songs and books that have come before today. I reflected upon a short story, “Eleven,” that speaks of being all the ages and realized that my prayer life is all the teachings, plus the decision to engage daily. The Scripture. The songs. The answered prayers of 45 years. These were my teachers and my foundation, the pure material that has come through in life’s many trials. Prayer is like breathing.
Jeff lost his wallet. We prayed as we left to run errands. He found it while we were gone. Prayer is simple.
God is faithful when we take one step towards Him. I also believe that the verse in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “When I am weak, then I am strong,” is now etched on my heart. When we returned to the United States from Bolivia, I cried every Sunday during the singing. With emotions and transformation that I can’t explain well in words—works of the Spirit, I am sure—I poured out my soul to God in prayer. I chose not to wipe the tears away. Prayer is hard.
There was a time when I was driving every day after work to take college classes in Greeley, Colorado. On my way there, I was listening to rock music and reading the NY Times. It was a time that would end in a miscarriage, but before that, I realized that I needed to use my time differently and started to listen to purely KLOVE (Christian radio). The same thing seemed to happen in November of 2022. Things were so hard and I needed to be in constant prayer. Fire refines us and shows us who we really are. Sometimes it only warms me, other times it lights the way. Sometimes it burns me, and other times it sweats the impurities out of me. Prayer, then, is like fire.
I had to pray for the enemy. Keep quiet and let God fight for us. I had to reach out and contact the prayer warriors and ask them to pray for something I simply couldn’t talk about. I had to give thanks, because there was no doubt that the hand of God was in even this terrible situation. I had to trust that God would shut the mouths of lions and He seemed to surround me with lambs. Prayer is a gift.
Looking through your life and the lessons that Jesus has taught you about prayer, which ones surprise you the most during a time of crisis?
Written by Corina Díaz, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Argentina
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matt. 6:6)
Throughout my Christian life, I have experienced different stages in my connection with Jesus, determined by the way in which I have practiced prayer.
During the first years, I learned to repeat prayers and the structure in which one should pray (call on Him – thanks – requests – blessing/praise). This gave me the foundation to practice what, years later, I came to know as Lectio Divina or contemplative prayer/reading—a deep search for silence. For me, silence is the perfect opportunity to listen to the Father and speak to Jesus from the depth of my heart.
First step, Lectio (reading): understand the Word (its literal meaning), responding to the question, what does the text say? It is important to contextualize through the following approaches: literary (word analysis), historical (sociocultural, economic, political, and religious situation), and theological (what God says).
Second step, Meditatio (meditation): receive the Word, what does the text say? We enter into an intimate dialogue with God through a series of questions that question our reality, and that help us to discover a message for life.
Third step, Oratio (prayer): respond to the Word, what does the text lead me to say to God? We respond in prayer, moved by the Holy Spirit.
And the fourth step, Contemplatio (contemplation/action): inspire life in the Word, to what conversion and action is the Lord inviting us? We receive what is discovered through dialogue with God, and the good news is that He sends us to find it with others.
In this final step is where we truly come together in prayer, when we are bathed in silence, and we have heard the voice of the Father to inspire our daily lives.
¡Be still in the presence of the Lord! (Ps. 37:7)
I invite you to practice this exercise through a passage of the Bible, maybe the same text in which Jesus teaches His disciples to pray in Matthew 6:5-15.
