Holy Club 20

Am I enjoying prayer?

We're now beginning to repeat ourselves with accountability questions. It's very easy to make Christians feel guilty about their prayer life. Most of us feel we're in the 'could do better' category. The challenge is to inspire one another to pray rather than guilt-trip them.

Talking about positive answers to prayer its a good way of doing this. When we pray and see God at work in both our lives and in the lives of people around us, it's easy to enjoy prayer. I was a student chaplain many years ago and the students kept a prayer diary - left hand page for prayer requests, right hand page for answers. It was astonishing how often God answered prayer, often it was a surprise when we got the book out and checked what we'd prayed for and discovered that God had indeed answered. An idea worth resurrecting?

Of course, enjoying prayer is related to whether or not we 'feel' the presence of God (God's always there - sometimes we're very aware of it, other times not). One of the key Holy Club activities to help them experience the presence of God was regularly celebrating the Holy Communion.

As a new Christian in a rural Methodist church, I didn't often get the chance to share holy communion. Someone from a similar background complained that theological college worship was too sacramental - Communion every week, he was only used to receiving communion once every three months. One of the tutors remonstrated with the student, reminding him that our Lord said ' Do this in remembrance of me.' The student replied, 'I can remember for three months - can't you?'

I may remember, the fact of irregular communion - living in the experience of meeting Jesus lasts a much shorter time. Communion is a mystery - we're not quite sure what happens and how. It's also an experience to savour - as we share the communion meal, we do become one with each other and with Jesus in a way that's worth doing often.

In the Fresh Expressions world, we've rediscovered the truth that communion was in the setting of a passover meal - meat and veg, not just a crumb of bread and wine - there's something special about that too.

Bible passage to meditate on: Matthew 26:26-30