The Logos Prayer: Ancient Prayer--Renewed!

Ancient Prayer--Renewed!

A Short History of Christian Prayer:

The Meaningful and the Meaningless

Even before the Bible was inspired by God and written by men, prayer was at the center of human relationship with God. Adam had no Bible, yet God walked with him in the garden in the cool of the day. Enoch walked so closely with God that the Lord took him to Heaven without the customary death-transition. Through prayer, Noah heard the Lord's warnings of judgment and humanity was saved. Abraham had no Bible, yet the Almighty revealed Himself to the patriarch during his prayer time. Moses talked face-to-face with God like a man talks with a friend. Through prayer, the prophets heard God's word and shared it with the people. The apostles asked Jesus to teach them to pray, and it was through prayer that the Holy Spirit filled them at Pentecost. Since the dawn of Christianity, God has called the faithful to prayer. But that prayer time has not always looked the same through the history of the church.

Roman Catholic rosary

In the early days of our faith, Christian contemplatives used to recite the entire book of Psalms, offering them as prayers to God. With the illiteracy of the Dark Ages came the shift to memorized prayers. Often, rosary beads have been employed for counting these recitations. In the fourth century, Paul the Hermit is said to have repeated three hundred prayers a day. He counted his prayers by collecting pebbles in the morning and discarding a pebble every time he prayed (Palladius, Hist. Laus., xx; Butler, II, 63). During the Middle Ages, Roman Catholics used rosaries with various numbers of beads to count prayers.

Orthodox Chotki beads

The Roman rosary is similar to the Orthodox Chotki, a prayer rope with various numbers of knots, and a tassel on the end to dry one’s tears. Believers use the Chotik to count recitations of the ancient Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This prayer is based on the publican’s prayer in Luke 18:9-14, “O God, have mercy on me, a sinner." As imaginative prayer was difficult to teach to the illiterate masses, chotki provided a way to exercise devotion to God by rote memory. The Jesus Prayer is also called the Prayer of the Heart, because Orthodox leaders understood that any recited prayer can become monotonous and meaningless. They encouraged the prayer to be prayed “from the heart” rather than by rote. No matter how effective prayer beads and prayer ropes were for their time, a greater technology was just around the corner.

Gutenberg Bible

With the age of enlightenment came greater literacy. In the fifteenth century, Guttenberg’s press churned out Bibles for the mass populace. Soon afterward, prayer books also became popular. In 1549, the first English prayer book was printed, and many subsequent versions followed. Through the use of prayer books, believers could pray under the direction of spiritual teachers who may be miles or even continents away. While the Protestant Reformation encouraged believers to read the Bible for themselves, prayer was generally something still done according to written formulas. The Pietistic movement, from which most evangelical churches emerged, changed all that. Suddenly, Christians were encouraged to pray for themselves. If prayer had once been a static recital, the Pietists encouraged it to be a dynamic expression of the heart's desire before God.

Book of Common Prayer

The Pietists were the forebears of modern evangelicals. From their tradition has sprung a vibrant style of praying exactly what’s on your heart. Gone are the prayer books from the bookshelves of most evangelicals, replaced by the modern devotional book. Many believers would never go a day without having their “devotions.” Yet as good as these books are at applying the Bible to everyday life, there remains a problem with our daily devotions. As much as our devotion books focus the Christian by giving assigned Scripture readings and explanations of those passages, precious few actually lead a believer in effective prayer. While other books talk a lot about prayer, I want to help you base your quiet time with Jesus not on devotion books, but on The Book—the Bible—God’s precious word.

Just one of many popular devotion books

Pietistic prayer started well, but nothing remains dynamic forever. Even great moves of the Holy Spirit have their durations. The first Great Awakening could not last, and neither could the second. Eventually free-form prayer erodes into vain repetition as believers rehearse their worn-out words of praise and same old prayer lists before God. You may have been inspired by hearing some old saint lifting eloquent words to the heavens. Perhaps you picked up some of their prayer phrases without even knowing it. But somehow their enthusiasm got lost in translation. Thankfully our Lord never tires of hearing from His children.

Despite our tired prayers, or even our prayerlessness, God still calls out to his children, "Return to me, and I will return to you (Mal 3:7 ESV)." God wants you to have a thriving prayer time, one where you feel close to Jesus. The problem is that even those who say they have no rituals actually do, and we have allowed our old prayer habits to cloud our relationship with Jesus. Our same-old, same-old prayers and our lists and our devotion books have become idols that have inadvertently impeded our connection to God, who not only wants to hear from us, but who also wants to speak to us.

In The God Who Comes, author and teacher Carlo Caretto writes:

The God-who-is has always been searching for me. By his choice, his relationship with me is a presence, as a call, as a guide; he is not satisfied with speaking to me, or showing things to me, or asking things of me. He does much more.

He is Life, and he knows his creature can do nothing without him; he knows his child would die of hunger without bread.

But our bread is God himself, and God gives himself to us as food.

Only eternal life can feed one who is destined for eternal life.

The bread of earth can nourish us only for this finite earth; it can sustain us only as far as the frontier of the Invisible. If we want to penetrate this frontier, the bread from our fields is not sufficient; if we want to march along the roads of the Invisible, we must feed on bread from heaven.

The bread from heaven is God himself. He becomes food to us walking in the Invisible.

Are you starving for the Bread of Life? Return to God, and He will feed you. God says:

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David (Isaiah 55:1-3 NIV).”

In Isaiah 31:6-7 (NIV) God also says, "Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against. For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made." Has your prayer time become idolatrous, because you're so focused on what you're saying to God that you're not listening to His voice? Have the prayer needs that you're lifting before God's throne actually become false gods that take your attention away from finding familiarity with God Himself? Maybe it's time to reexamine our methods and find a way to keep prayer God-focused rather than needs-focused.

The old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Maybe your prayer life is fine. You're closer to God than you've ever been before. Wonderfu! Then quit reading about prayer, and get back to actually praying. But if you're like many whose prayer life is not only broken but nonexistent, then listen to the words of Lamentations 3:40. "Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD."

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Quiet Time with Jesus

The “quiet time” is a long-standing Evangelical tradition. Some call it “devotion time” and others call it “prayer time,” but whatever you call it, your quiet time is the one essential thing you need for a healthy relationship with God. Remove a person’s mobility so that they can no longer attend church, and they will be all right, as long as they know how to have quiet time with Jesus. Take away a person’s income, and they will survive as long as they are intimate with Jesus. Prevent them from serving and they will get by, but get rid of a person’s quiet time with Jesus and watch their soul wither away. More than anything else, you need a regular quiet time with Jesus, if you are going to grow in faith and grace.

Quiet time with Jesus involves three things: quiet space, quiet time, and a quiet heart. First, you must be in a quiet place. You might think that goes without saying, but there’s nothing more distracting when you’re trying to have your quiet time, than noise and distractions all around you. I have four children whom I love dearly, but when I’m trying to have my quiet time I need to get away from them. My environment needs to be quiet so I can quiet my mind. I’ve come to crave a time of quiet like a thirsty person craves water. William Penn said:

Love silence even in the mind; for thoughts are to that as words to the body, troublesome. Much speaking, as much thinking, spends; and in many thoughts, as well as words, there is sin. True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. It is a great virtue; it covers folly, keeps secrets, avoids disputes, and prevents sin. (Advice to Children. Chapter 2)

Both your environment must be quiet, and your mind must be quiet. So find a comfortable spot free from distractions where you can be completely silent. The only noises you should be able to hear should be soothing sounds like the singing of birds or soft music. Personally, if I play music I intentionally choose soothing instrumental music with which I am not familiar. I find that if I know the songs too well, my mind will drift into that melody and away from my prayer. Ambient music is easy to find at most music stores, and recordings of nature sounds also drown out distractions nicely. If your kids are talking loudly in the next room, or if you live in an urban apartment with street noise outside, soft music is virtually essential in order to create a quiet space for prayer.

Second, you not only need quiet space—you need quiet time. We’ve established that in order to have quiet Kairos with Jesus, you need to plan to spend some Chronos with Him. (Click here to see article “Kairos, Chronos, and the Eternal Now.”) Make it the first priority in your life. Schedule everything around it, rather than the other way around. You can’t expect to pick up a devotional book entitled Sixty Seconds with Jesus and expect it to inspire true relationship with the Savior. Give Him the time He deserves.

Let me ask you—what if you tithed your time to God? You may already give God ten percent of your money, but what if you gave God ten percent of your time? What if you gave God 2.4 hours out of your 24-hour day? Or, if you can’t do that, how about giving God 1.8 hours out of an 18-hour day? Some may rationalize their time-tithe to themselves, saying, “My financial time is based on my 8-hour work day, so my time-tithe should also be based on my 8-hour work day.” That’s fine. Take .8 hours out of your 8-hour work day and give it to God. However you figure out what your tithe is, consider tithing your time to God. Most people can give God a tithe of their time, if they just reprioritize and cut out the distractions.

Management Digest (Vol. 1, No. 4, July, 1989) reports on the importance of quiet time:

One hour of quiet concentration in any business can be worth two hours of normal working time, according to the management of a Denver business, quoted in a Success magazine item.

"Interruptions are the biggest enemy of creativity," says Gary Desmond, a principal of Hoover Berg Desmond (HBD) a $30 million a year architectural firm. To minimize the inevitable interruptions in the firm's large, open offices, Desmond came up with the idea which is more familiar with kids than corporations--the quiet hour. Every morning from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., no one at HBD including the principals, may communicate with anyone else inside or outside the office. "Basically, we're sitting at our desks for that hour," says Desmond, who makes allowances for emergency phone calls. "We try to focus totally on our clients' designs." Initially, HBD's 25 employees balked at the concept.

"Management had to explain that this was not a response to bad work habits. It was a vehicle to make us concentrate even more rigorously," says Desmond, although he now concedes that quiet hour is an excellent crack-the-whip technique too. But what do the clients think of it? At first, the firm chose to hide the policy from the outside world. "Businesses that found out used to ask if we served milk and cookies at quiet hour," says Desmond. "But we stuck to it and now those same firms respect how much we're trying to accomplish every morning." Quiet hour has worked out so well, in fact, that HBD wants to start a second one, perhaps in midafternoon. "Our employees all wish they had more quiet hours," says Desmond. "It gives us what most businesses need so badly, a little time to think."

For me, quiet time has become absolutely essential to my spiritual development. On those days when I allow life’s responsibilities to crowd out my quiet time, I inevitably find that I will make more careless mistakes, or be irritable with my spouse, or fall more easily into sin’s temptations. My quiet time energizes me. It grounds me. It lets me process who I am and what God is doing in my life. It opens my ears and eyes to experience God, rather than being so self-focused all day long.

Third, you need to quiet your heart. Psalm 62:1 (NASB) says, “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.” God says in Psalm 46:10 (NIV), “Be still, and know that I am God. In Psalm 131:1-2, David writes:

“O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.

Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.

Quiet time with Jesus involves getting quiet at the center of your being. If you want to grow in your spiritual life, let nothing come ahead of your quiet time with Jesus. In How to Live a Holy Life, Christian author C.E. Orr says:

“If you desire victory during the day, begin it with prayer--not a few hurried words, not a few ejaculations, but minutes of deep, intimate communion with God. Linger at the altar of prayer until you feel particles of glory drop in richness into your soul, scattering sweetness throughout. In the early morning hours, when the still, balmy breath of nature plays around you, let your soul fly away on the wings of prayer with its message of love and praise to its Maker (Orr, C.E. How to Live a Holy Life. An eBook produced by Mark Zinthefer, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team)."

George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends (The Quakers), puts it this way: "Carry some quiet around inside thee. Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit, from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God to turn thy mind to the Lord from whence cometh life; whereby thou mayest receive the strength and power to allay all storms and tempests."

So, when you have a quiet place, quiet time, and a quiet heart, you are ready to begin your devotions with Jesus. Soon, we’ll talk about how the ancient Christians kept their quiet time with Jesus. For now, let’s focus on learning to get our hearts still, so that we can know that He is God.

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About Protestant Prayer Beads

Protestant (or Anglican, or Ecumenical) prayer beads are a great way to pray through God's word, without getting caught up in self-centered prayers or getting distracted by extraneous thoughts. Many people say that the tactile stimulation of using prayer beads keeps them focused on their prayers.

Most of the meditations on this website utilize the Ecumenical Prayer Bead format. These meditations also include devotional thoughts based on God's word.

About the prayer beads, King of Peace's website says:

Anglican Prayer Beads are a relatively new form of prayer, blending the Orthodox Jesus Prayer Rope and the Roman Catholic Rosary. The thirty-three bead design was created by the Rev. Lynn Bauman in the mid-1980s, through the prayerful exploration and discovery of a contemplative prayer group.

Unlike the Roman Catholic rosary, these prayer beads do not promote appeals to Mary and the saints. Protestants should have no worries in using these, as they simply utilize repetition of scripture and scripture-based prayers.

Quiet Time with Jesus: Lectio Divina

Whenever I teach Christian spirituality, I like to use the ancient framework of Lectio Divina (Latin: "Divine Reading). At one time, all Christians were taught the practice of Lectio Divina, but it was kept alive in the monastic tradition. It's a way of fully absorbing the Word of God, waiting on God, and praying God's word back to Him. As an example, I often use Psalm 136 to teach this practice.

There are four steps in Lectio Divina. These praying person should flow freely from one step to another, effortlessly and patiently. Personally, I like to spend about an hour in this practice.

**The fist step is Lectio, or "Reading."**
Let your prayer time begin with the Bible. Choose a scripture and read it deliberately and unhurriedly. I like to read it phrase-by-phrase, moving my lips as if I were speaking the words slowly, yet without prouncing them fully. This allows me to take time with the words, rather than skimming the verses. When you reach the end of your exhale, inhale slowly and take time to reflect on what you've just read, before you continue with your next exhale.

When you've finished reading the scripture the first time, read it again. Ask God to show you a word or a phrase that stands out from that scripture. Don't look for an entire verse--this is too long. Look for something shorter than that, just a word, or short phrase. This will be God's special gift to you.

Then, repeat the scripture again. Read it through several times. If you've carved out an hour for Lectio Divina, then make this about 1/4 of that hour.

Today, I've chosen Psalm 136:1-9, 23-26 in order to give you an example of this.
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.
4 to him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.
5 who by his understanding made the heavens,
His love endures forever.
6 who spread out the earth upon the waters,
His love endures forever.
7 who made the great lights—
His love endures forever.
8 the sun to govern the day,
His love endures forever.
9 the moon and stars to govern the night;
His love endures forever...

23 He remembered us in our low estate
His love endures forever.
24 and freed us from our enemies.
His love endures forever.
25 He gives food to every creature.
His love endures forever.
26 Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.
I use this passage because it's easy to tell which phrase stands out above the rest. "His love endures forever" becomes a message that, being repeated over and over, works its way from your head to your heart. By the time you're done repeating this scripture, you fully grasp that God's love endures forever.

**The second step is Meditatio, or "Meditation."**
Take this word or phrase that you've found in Scripture (in this case, "His love endures forever," and repeat it to yourself. Breathe in slowly, whispering the phrase. Breathe out slowly, whispering the phrase. Repeat this for several minutes. Personally, I like to do this for fifteen minutes or so, if I'm doing Lectio Divina for an hour. Just allow the phrase to sink in.

Some Christians are opposed to repetition, citing Jesus' injunction against "vain repetition (Matthew 6:7)." "Vain" means pointless or ego-centric, and this repetition is neither of those things. It's a way of breaking through to my stony heart. Jacob Riis writes in Reader's Digest: "I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before." God's word is like that. Repeat it enough, and it finally breaks through.

As a side note: Some people will use the word mantra to describe this repetition of a word or phrase. I never use this term, since mantras stem from the Hindu tradition, and what I'm talking about is decidedly Christian. Hindus believe their mantras to possess an esoteric quality, resonating with divine frequencies and effecting spiritual dimensions by their mystical resonance. Mantras are believed to have nearly the same qualities as a magic spell. The only similarity between a Christian's repetition of scripture, and a Hindu's mantra is the fact that it's a repeated word. Instead, I use the term Logos Prayer to describe this repeated word or phrase. Simply repeat this word that God has given you, back to Him. And in the process, He will give it back to you again, letting it break through your stony heart.

**The third step is Oratio, or "Prayer."**
If you've allowed an hour for the entire process of Lectio Divina, then spend about fifteen minutes in prayer. But don't just go through your prayer list. Instead, pray about the word or phrase that God has given you. In this case, our phrase is "His love endures forever." So, spend your prayer time talking with God about His enduring love. Thank Him for it. Praise Him for it. Ask Him for more of it. Give your enduring love back to Him. Ask Him to give enduring love to others. Let God's enduring love be the theme of this prayer. This is a free-form prayer time, without any script, without any right or wrong way to pray. Just allow the Logos Prayer to flow freely. If you wish, you might mark your transition from prayer to contemplation with the simply phrase, "In Jesus' name, amen."

**The fourth step is Contemplatio, or "Contemplation."**
Simply put, contemplation is resting in the "amen." Instead of letting your "amen" mean "Ok, I'm done praying now, so I'm going to hang up the phone," spend about a quarter-hour resting in it. "Amen" means "let it be." It is a word of simple reliance, trust, and resting in God's ability to do all that you could ever ask or imagine. Psalm 46:10 (NIV) says, "Be still, and know that I am God." Contemplation is being still, waiting on God, trusting God to complete what He has begun in you. Contemplation is uncomplicated in that it involves no reading, no repeating, no forming your own thoughts into words. It is simple resting in God's presence.

The thing to remember when practicing contemplative prayer is that it's not about you. In fact, in contemplative prayer, the ultimate goal is to empty one's self and be in God's presence. This doesn't mean that you're "opening your soul to whatever spirit wants to come in," as some people have suggested. It means that you're emptying yourself of ego, realizing that "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20 NIV)." Instead of filling your mind with the things that you want or think, simply rest in the passive attitude of a person who truly means it when they say "amen." Let it be.

You may find your mind wandering as you sit in silence, trying to think nothing and simply listening for God's still, small, voice. If this happens, simply say your Logos Prayer once. Don't repeat it as before. Just say it once, allowing it to bring you back to a place of silence. Sit quietly. Trust God. Listen to God. Let God fill you.

Many Christians say that their prayer life is boring--a routine of going through their prayer list and saying "amen" before they get about the business of their day. Lectio Divina is an ancient prayer method that refreshes your soul every day. Instead of being self-centered, this practice is God-centered. I invite you to try it for yourself, and see how your relationship with the Lord will grow.

Training Wheels for Prayer

A friend of mine wants to learn how to pray. She grew up in the church, learned the Lord’s Prayer, and is still lost on how to pray. She’s gone to the bookstore and seen the shelves full of books on prayer, but they all seem so complex. When she was still an unbeliever she started asking me about prayer, because she didn’t know how to approach God as a non-Christian. Now that she’s received the Lord, her relationship with Him has changed. But her desire for simplicity in prayer remains the same. Maybe you’re the same way. You desire truth in the inmost parts. You desire wisdom in the inmost place of your life.[i] Truth and wisdom are found best in simplicity. Complexity muddles the understanding.

If you want to learn to pray, it’s best to go back to the beginning. Forget the complicated methods you may have learned. Forget the formulas and formats. Go back to the beginning. Go back to the Word. By praying the Word you’ll learn how to make your quiet time with Jesus the most precious time of the day. You’ll get to the point where you’d rather have your quiet time than anything else. Jesus will come first in your life, and you’ll long for that sweet hour of prayer.

Some time ago, I invited my congregation to take their prayer time more seriously. I asked them to covenant with me, for a time, to pray for an hour a day. To my delight, more people accepted the challenge than I anticipated. Those who joined me in this prayer commitment received a daily encouraging email. I even had one gentleman join me from his prison cell. Though he couldn’t receive email, I sent him a weekly digest that he could read day by day. Through this hour of prayer, his prison cell became his monastery. Others told me how they, too, had been set free from sterile prayer procedures and had really learned how to connect with God. What I taught them wasn’t a new innovative technique—it was a way of praying that is as old as Christianity itself. I taught them to pray God’s Word.

Praying the Word of God is like a good set of training wheels. When my son learned to ride his bike for the first time, I put extra little wheels on that Schwinn of his so he wouldn’t fall over. Now, he’s grown out of his training wheels and can ride by himself. But I don’t think we ever grow out of training wheels when we learn to pray. We need help, because we don’t know how to pray as we ought. Fortunately, we have many resources ready to help us in prayer.

First, the apostle Paul tells us, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”[ii] So the Holy Spirit is like the parent who runs alongside the kid who’s learning to ride his bike. The Spirit points us in the right direction, keeps us upright and on the right path, and if we do fall down, interprets our prayers according to God’s perfect will. Without the Holy Spirit’s help, we would never learn how to keep our balance.

Second, we have the example of Christians who have gone before us. Paul says to his protégé Timothy, “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”[iii] You may have been guided by parents, pastors, teachers, friends, and others who led you to this point in your faith. You have heard the way that they pray, and their prayers have informed your own prayer life. If you pay attention, you may find yourself using phrases in prayer that you picked up from them. Perhaps you were taught to pray by using a liturgical prayer book. In the same way that some have learned to pray by listening to others, you learned by reading words penned by others. Praise God for prayer books—they have helped many grow closer to the Lord.

Third, we have a better prayer book—the Word of God. When you learn to pray God’s Word, you’ll wean yourself off of copying prayers written by professionals or spoken by friends. You’ll be able to pray God’s Word, and know God’s power in prayer.

The difference between learning to ride a bike and learning to pray is that once you’ve learned to ride, you quit learning and just ride. Once you’ve learned to pray, you keep growing and keep learning, and you always need your training wheels. You might learn to let go of prayer books and emulating great prayer leaders, but you never leave behind the Holy Spirit or finding inspiration in God’s Word.

When I invited people to pray for an hour a day, many happily joined me in the journey. I was amazed, however, at the number of folks who approached me saying, “I’d like to, but I just don’t think I could pray for an hour a day.” They were glad to sing the hymn in church, but they just couldn’t imagine a “Sweet Hour of Prayer” in real life. That’s because they envisioned spending an hour with their eyes closed, asking God for stuff. This book is written to show that prayer can be so much more!

What you read in this blog will revitalize your prayer life, if you let it. You’ll look forward to your quiet time with Jesus each day. On the days when you don’t have your quiet time (let’s get real), you’ll feel like you really missed out. You won’t approach your time with Jesus as many did when they first accepted my challenge, saying, “I don’t know how I’m going to get through this hour, but here goes.” Instead, when your kitchen timer goes off you’ll say, “Has an hour passed already?” Indeed, you’ll have more than a sweet hour of prayer. You’ll have a life of prayer.

[i] Psalm 51:6 NIV

[ii] Romans 8:26 NIV

[iii] 2 Timothy 1:6 NIV

What is the Logos Prayer?

Simply put, the Logos Prayer is praying God's word. I believe that God's word doesn't just have power. God's word is power to transform your life. If God could form the world with just a word, then His word also has power to shape your thinking and change your life.

Certainly, there are many kinds of prayer. The purpose of this blog isn't to cover every type of prayer, but to teach you to pray God's word in a life-altering way.

The Logos Prayer doesn't approach your devotion as a perfunctory inspirational message that you read before bed. It doesn't focus on your prayer time as a list of requests, but as an appointment with the One who sees the depths of your heart and mind and refashions your life to make you more like Jesus.

Romans 12:2 (NIV) says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The Logos Prayer does just that--it renews your mind. It isn't simple rote recitation of scripture, but a way of letting God's word sink into you.

Look at it this way: If you have a long nail that you want to hammer into a thick block of wood, you're going to have to hit it over and over again. If you're like me, then your heart can be a bit wooden, too. You need something powerful to transform you. Praying God's word through meaningful repetition hammers God's word into your heart and mind, transforming you from the inside out.

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Ancient Prayer--Renewed!

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