First of all, I am honored to be part of this blog, thank you Gwen for the invitation. I say a virtual hello to my fellow contributors.
Now, let me make things complicated for you... I can say that I started praying (at least) three times in my life, and that each instance evolved from the previous experience. The three types of prayer I would like to share about are Technical Prayer, Intellectual Prayer, and Emotional Prayer.
Technical Prayer is when I read the words printed in my prayer book, or recite the blessings that I memorized. I don't understand what I'm saying, and I don't even have a purpose to my prayer. I just say it. I say it because I was told to. I say it because my parents say it. I say it because I want to eat, and I don't put food in my mouth until I pray. That is what I call Technical Prayer. As unspiritual as it sounds, it serves a very important purpose. The purpose is humility and surrender. It's not about me. It can't be about me, because I don't understand and because I don't know. As childish as it sounds, is as pure as it sounds. Our great sages, who achieved the highest levels of prayer, wished they can revert back to pray like a child. I have been trained to do so since my youngest age. I said blessings and prayers before I knew how to talk...
Then I grew up. Technical Prayer was not sufficient any more, I had to upgrade. I upgraded to Intellectual Prayer. I was 13 years old, and I just started learning Jewish Mysticism, also known as Chassidus. I bought a special prayer book, with translation, and annotations. I started to study the meaning of prayer and the intricacies of its order. Intellectually, I started to understand what I was saying, and why I was saying it. When I prayed I paid more attention to the words that came out of my mouth. I made sure that they matched the thoughts in my head. Prayer now has meaning.
Again, that is not enough. The intellectual meaning of prayer, is a great tool of spiritual growth, but as far as a relationship with G-d, it is similar to what someone else with comparable intellectual capacities can achieve. Where is my personal connection? That is where I need Emotional Prayer. When I start to pray emotionally, the words that I say and their meaning take a back seat to what I feel. I use the written words in my book to express the emotions etched in my heart. I read with my lips, and I cry from my soul. I find the part in me that I'm willing to give to G-d today, and I ask G-d to accept from me. I invite G-d to be part of who I am, I ask him to help me be all I can be.
Praying emotionally evolved from many important events in my life. One of them is the discovery of the Twelve Steps, and the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Prayer in the program is always a matter of life and death. It doesn't get any more personal than that. It doesn't get more emotional than that.
7.26.2007
My Prayer Progress by Dick B.
"When did you first start praying and how has your prayer life evolved since then?"
At the editor's request, here are a few words about the duration, progress, and effectiveness of my prayer life: First, my mother was reading the Bible to me at the earliest receptive point in my life. She did the praying and I did the believing. Like so many who go to institutions of higher learning, I probably left prayer behind during my University of California and Stanford Law School years. On graduation from Law School, I thought I was marrying a Christian women who would respect my beliefs and I hers. Instead, she immediately had a nervous breakdown with bipolar consequences that lasted from 1951 to about 1968. Even then, it was my mother that did the praying, and I the reliance on doctors and pills and hopefully TLC. During that period, my wife became a church and minister shopper at Protestant Churches that were not to my taste. I went to no church. I read no Bible. And I left the prayers to my mother. My wife and I never prayed together, never read the Bible together, and never asked God's help for her problems or our difficult marriage. The two sons were sent to Sunday School, after the great Protestant dumping tradition. But I did not participate. Her church asked me to teach Sunday School and handed me a book that was titled something like "Why prayers don't get answered." I declined to teach on such a subject because I believed that prayers do get answered and that healing is possible through prayer and reliance on God. But, in the meantime, my alcoholism flourished and replaced my wife's schizo-affective disorder. I joined her church. I became President of the church. I became a seeker of power and profit rather than a seeker of God and His righteouness. And I saw no evidence that the people in the church gave much credence to the power of prayer. And then things changed. My older son had joined a Bible research, teaching, and fellowship ministry; his mother opposed it; her mother opposed it; and I probably made fun of it. But then he invited me to the Holy Land on a fellowship trip. It was there that I saw some solid Christian believers daily praying, daily reading the Bible, and counting themselves as believers who had gotten born again and gotten "into the Word." I was very enthused, but treated the next few years badly. I took all the Bible classes. I attended all the Bible fellowships and conferences and teachings. I became born again. I spoke in tongues. And I drank. The problem was not God's. It was Dick's. And then the storms came. Typical storms involving alcoholism--resentment against my wife, denying my drinking problem, regularly abusing alcohol and sleeping pills, raising heck with church people, adversaries, and anyone who stood in my way. Not a single prayer for recovery. On April 21, 1986, I had had it. That date was preceded by nine months of drinking and unbearable depression; by unpardonable ethical conduct; by a host of emerging legal problems; and then a week's blackout. Still, however, no resort to prayer. As happens in these cases, the legal problems, the withdrawal problems, the marriage problems, the criminal problems, the confusion and memory and thinking problems, to mention a few, all converged to make my early sober months unbearable. I had been in A.A. since April 23rd. I had and have not had a single drink nor a single sleeping pill. I loved A.A. and thought very little about prayer--being told that I should not read the Bible, only A.A. books; that people who read the Bible got drunk; and that any interest I had in my Bible fellowship was premature and distracting. In despair, I checked into the Veterans Administration Psychiatric Ward in San Francisco. There I languished for five weeks, finally deciding I ought to consider suicide. My older son and his wife thrust Bible study and prayer upon me; and an older gentleman in our Bible fellowship called me long distance every day and listened to my whining. He said, Dick, why don't you stop trying to program your life and ask God what to do and for help. He asked me to check the story of "Peter walking on the water." I told him (erroneously) that only Jesus had been the water walker. But he persisted. I found from the Bible itself that verily when Jesus beckoned to Peter to walk and said, "come;" Peter believed, obeyed, and walked. Then Peter looked at the waves, heard the winds, became afraid and sank--only to be rescued by Jesus. I got the point. I dived into the Bible. I read Christian literature. I dragged psychos to A.A. meetings all over San Francisco. I listened to Christian tapes. But from the first moment of Bible study in the psych ward, I believed. What's more, I immediately got over the immense anxiety and fear and was ready for discharge. From that moment to this very day, I have worked with newcomers in A.A. incessantly. I have taught them the Big Book and the Twelve Steps. And I have led them to Christ and brought them into my son's Bible fellowship. Prayer to God for forgiveness, for thankfulness, for guidance, for praise, for healing, for my needs to be met has been daily fare. I've never had or wanted a drink or sleeping pill. I've had no fear or anxiety. I knew and believed that the accomplishments of Jesus Christ had released me from shame, guilt, fear, condemnation, obsessions, physical infirmities, and resentments. And that has been the case. Since then, I have prayed for and received deliverance during eye implant surgery and extremely difficult open heart surgery. In the last few years, I degenerated into a couch potato, only to have my doctor tell me I had to get moving. More prayer. But More arthritis. More breathing difficulty. More danger of a heart attack. No significant moving or cessation in eating too much. Prayer continued. I was joined on Maui by a young Christian recovered AA who was and is on fire for Jesus Christ. He is also a fitness expert. He volunteered to help me with my research into the Christian roots and Biblical stress in early A.A. He came here around the first of May, providentially as Dr. Bob would say, but in answer to prayers I would say. It's now late July. My arthritis is hardly even a problem. My breathing is no longer labored. I'm back swimming, losing weight, dieting, and praising and thanking our Heavenly Father in the name of His precious son Jesus Christ. I'm raring to tell others by every means possible what my Heavenly Father has done for me in answer to prayer and believing and standing on the truth of His Word.
God Bless, Dick B. http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml
At the editor's request, here are a few words about the duration, progress, and effectiveness of my prayer life: First, my mother was reading the Bible to me at the earliest receptive point in my life. She did the praying and I did the believing. Like so many who go to institutions of higher learning, I probably left prayer behind during my University of California and Stanford Law School years. On graduation from Law School, I thought I was marrying a Christian women who would respect my beliefs and I hers. Instead, she immediately had a nervous breakdown with bipolar consequences that lasted from 1951 to about 1968. Even then, it was my mother that did the praying, and I the reliance on doctors and pills and hopefully TLC. During that period, my wife became a church and minister shopper at Protestant Churches that were not to my taste. I went to no church. I read no Bible. And I left the prayers to my mother. My wife and I never prayed together, never read the Bible together, and never asked God's help for her problems or our difficult marriage. The two sons were sent to Sunday School, after the great Protestant dumping tradition. But I did not participate. Her church asked me to teach Sunday School and handed me a book that was titled something like "Why prayers don't get answered." I declined to teach on such a subject because I believed that prayers do get answered and that healing is possible through prayer and reliance on God. But, in the meantime, my alcoholism flourished and replaced my wife's schizo-affective disorder. I joined her church. I became President of the church. I became a seeker of power and profit rather than a seeker of God and His righteouness. And I saw no evidence that the people in the church gave much credence to the power of prayer. And then things changed. My older son had joined a Bible research, teaching, and fellowship ministry; his mother opposed it; her mother opposed it; and I probably made fun of it. But then he invited me to the Holy Land on a fellowship trip. It was there that I saw some solid Christian believers daily praying, daily reading the Bible, and counting themselves as believers who had gotten born again and gotten "into the Word." I was very enthused, but treated the next few years badly. I took all the Bible classes. I attended all the Bible fellowships and conferences and teachings. I became born again. I spoke in tongues. And I drank. The problem was not God's. It was Dick's. And then the storms came. Typical storms involving alcoholism--resentment against my wife, denying my drinking problem, regularly abusing alcohol and sleeping pills, raising heck with church people, adversaries, and anyone who stood in my way. Not a single prayer for recovery. On April 21, 1986, I had had it. That date was preceded by nine months of drinking and unbearable depression; by unpardonable ethical conduct; by a host of emerging legal problems; and then a week's blackout. Still, however, no resort to prayer. As happens in these cases, the legal problems, the withdrawal problems, the marriage problems, the criminal problems, the confusion and memory and thinking problems, to mention a few, all converged to make my early sober months unbearable. I had been in A.A. since April 23rd. I had and have not had a single drink nor a single sleeping pill. I loved A.A. and thought very little about prayer--being told that I should not read the Bible, only A.A. books; that people who read the Bible got drunk; and that any interest I had in my Bible fellowship was premature and distracting. In despair, I checked into the Veterans Administration Psychiatric Ward in San Francisco. There I languished for five weeks, finally deciding I ought to consider suicide. My older son and his wife thrust Bible study and prayer upon me; and an older gentleman in our Bible fellowship called me long distance every day and listened to my whining. He said, Dick, why don't you stop trying to program your life and ask God what to do and for help. He asked me to check the story of "Peter walking on the water." I told him (erroneously) that only Jesus had been the water walker. But he persisted. I found from the Bible itself that verily when Jesus beckoned to Peter to walk and said, "come;" Peter believed, obeyed, and walked. Then Peter looked at the waves, heard the winds, became afraid and sank--only to be rescued by Jesus. I got the point. I dived into the Bible. I read Christian literature. I dragged psychos to A.A. meetings all over San Francisco. I listened to Christian tapes. But from the first moment of Bible study in the psych ward, I believed. What's more, I immediately got over the immense anxiety and fear and was ready for discharge. From that moment to this very day, I have worked with newcomers in A.A. incessantly. I have taught them the Big Book and the Twelve Steps. And I have led them to Christ and brought them into my son's Bible fellowship. Prayer to God for forgiveness, for thankfulness, for guidance, for praise, for healing, for my needs to be met has been daily fare. I've never had or wanted a drink or sleeping pill. I've had no fear or anxiety. I knew and believed that the accomplishments of Jesus Christ had released me from shame, guilt, fear, condemnation, obsessions, physical infirmities, and resentments. And that has been the case. Since then, I have prayed for and received deliverance during eye implant surgery and extremely difficult open heart surgery. In the last few years, I degenerated into a couch potato, only to have my doctor tell me I had to get moving. More prayer. But More arthritis. More breathing difficulty. More danger of a heart attack. No significant moving or cessation in eating too much. Prayer continued. I was joined on Maui by a young Christian recovered AA who was and is on fire for Jesus Christ. He is also a fitness expert. He volunteered to help me with my research into the Christian roots and Biblical stress in early A.A. He came here around the first of May, providentially as Dr. Bob would say, but in answer to prayers I would say. It's now late July. My arthritis is hardly even a problem. My breathing is no longer labored. I'm back swimming, losing weight, dieting, and praising and thanking our Heavenly Father in the name of His precious son Jesus Christ. I'm raring to tell others by every means possible what my Heavenly Father has done for me in answer to prayer and believing and standing on the truth of His Word.
God Bless, Dick B. http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml
7.25.2007
Jody K -- The History and Evolution of Her Prayer Life
"When did you first start praying and how has your prayer life evolved since then?"
I prayed as a child – the “Now I lay me down to sleep” variety of prayer, but what I remember of that time was more superstition than anything resembling conscious contact with a higher power. For the record: I was raised first in the Pentecostal church, then in the Baptist church, but I left organized Christianity at fifteen. I never stopped believing in a higher power. I just couldn’t reconcile the exclusiveness and political nature of organized religion with a god that was supposed to have created us all. I still, however, look to the teachings of Christ as a good guide for living.
Over the years, my prayers ran from the vindictive kind (“God, please strike So&So down because you know I’m a good person, and I wouldn’t ask if he/she weren’t so evil,”) to the selfish kind (“God, please make me beautiful and rich and make all the other kids like me!”) to the bargaining kind (“God, please get me out of this, and I swear, I’ll never do it again.”). With few exceptions, I never experienced the humble and sincere kind, until one night…
I had been exposed to Alcoholics Anonymous several times over the course of my drinking and drugging years, but at the end, I felt I needed a miracle of science, not AA or a HP. It was not until I found myself in a state barren of all hope that I found the dormant seeds planted years before and watered them with prayer.
Miracles happened that night. I was desperate, and a hand reached out to me, through space – cyber space. Another alcoholic, three hundred miles away, was sitting at his keyboard in a chat room having nothing to do with recovery, and he sensed that I needed help. He provided me with a phone number – a hotline number. And I prayed.
I couldn’t tell you the words of that prayer, but I’m sure it went something like this: “God, creator, whomever you are, please don’t let me die here. My family doesn’t deserve this.” That was the beginning of my real prayer life, and it was probably the first unselfish thought I’d had in years. With that unselfish thought/prayer I came to a turning point.
I had trouble with prayer in early recovery. I felt something the night I grabbed onto the hands offered to me, but then came a disconnect that lasted several weeks. It wasn’t until Thanksgiving Day, nearly a month into my newly sober state, that anything further occurred in my prayer life. The topic of that night’s meeting was, as is tradition on Thanksgiving, gratitude. I was in a wheelchair at the time, and one of my fellow rehabites helped me to the podium, parking me in front of it. After a phone call to my family that day and a wonderful dinner with patients and staff, I had finally come to the point of being thankful for my answered prayer. I expressed it there in front of the podium, expressed my joy and gratitude at being alive, thanked whatever higher power was watching over me, and I had, I believe, my first truly spiritual experience. It was as though a bucket of cold water, not harsh but refreshing, had been dumped over me. I cried.
I have explored many avenues of spiritual expression, and these days, I seldom pray in words unless I’m repeating a version of the third or seventh step prayers or an eleventh step conversation that I have with my higher power that goes something like this: “Please help me stay out of your way today.” For the most part, when I’m praying for someone else, I do it in images. I focus on the person, visualize them surrounded by healing light, and I concentrate on sending all the love and compassion I possess into that image.
I don’t think I have any sort of healing powers, but I do sense that prayer isn’t supposed to be a passive activity. I attempt to connect to the spirit of the universe, and to me, that implies a bond, a strengthening and amplification of the spirit energy – if my motives are in the right place, divorced from selfishness, self-pity and fear, among other things. And if this were not so, if we played no part in this process, there would be no need to pray. Our god, whomever we conceive our god to be, would not need us to ask.
Also, my prayer does not occur at any set time during the day. It’s not ritualistic. I typically begin to pray sometime in the morning, and I am almost always in a state of prayer when I fall asleep at night, but it’s not because I’ve designated those times for prayer. Prayer, after awhile, became a natural state. Fearful? Uncertain? Irritated? Concerned? Those are times for me to pray. Grateful? Joyful? Serene? Relaxed? Those are also times for me to pray. And being a scattered, forgetful type, if I were to “save” my prayers for a designated time, I would surely forget some things, so I pray when and where I need to, without stopping to think, “I’m praying now.”
In a nutshell, the way I pray has evolved into a very vibrant, natural and harmonious part of my daily life.
Peace & Love,
Jody K.
I prayed as a child – the “Now I lay me down to sleep” variety of prayer, but what I remember of that time was more superstition than anything resembling conscious contact with a higher power. For the record: I was raised first in the Pentecostal church, then in the Baptist church, but I left organized Christianity at fifteen. I never stopped believing in a higher power. I just couldn’t reconcile the exclusiveness and political nature of organized religion with a god that was supposed to have created us all. I still, however, look to the teachings of Christ as a good guide for living.
Over the years, my prayers ran from the vindictive kind (“God, please strike So&So down because you know I’m a good person, and I wouldn’t ask if he/she weren’t so evil,”) to the selfish kind (“God, please make me beautiful and rich and make all the other kids like me!”) to the bargaining kind (“God, please get me out of this, and I swear, I’ll never do it again.”). With few exceptions, I never experienced the humble and sincere kind, until one night…
I had been exposed to Alcoholics Anonymous several times over the course of my drinking and drugging years, but at the end, I felt I needed a miracle of science, not AA or a HP. It was not until I found myself in a state barren of all hope that I found the dormant seeds planted years before and watered them with prayer.
Miracles happened that night. I was desperate, and a hand reached out to me, through space – cyber space. Another alcoholic, three hundred miles away, was sitting at his keyboard in a chat room having nothing to do with recovery, and he sensed that I needed help. He provided me with a phone number – a hotline number. And I prayed.
I couldn’t tell you the words of that prayer, but I’m sure it went something like this: “God, creator, whomever you are, please don’t let me die here. My family doesn’t deserve this.” That was the beginning of my real prayer life, and it was probably the first unselfish thought I’d had in years. With that unselfish thought/prayer I came to a turning point.
I had trouble with prayer in early recovery. I felt something the night I grabbed onto the hands offered to me, but then came a disconnect that lasted several weeks. It wasn’t until Thanksgiving Day, nearly a month into my newly sober state, that anything further occurred in my prayer life. The topic of that night’s meeting was, as is tradition on Thanksgiving, gratitude. I was in a wheelchair at the time, and one of my fellow rehabites helped me to the podium, parking me in front of it. After a phone call to my family that day and a wonderful dinner with patients and staff, I had finally come to the point of being thankful for my answered prayer. I expressed it there in front of the podium, expressed my joy and gratitude at being alive, thanked whatever higher power was watching over me, and I had, I believe, my first truly spiritual experience. It was as though a bucket of cold water, not harsh but refreshing, had been dumped over me. I cried.
I have explored many avenues of spiritual expression, and these days, I seldom pray in words unless I’m repeating a version of the third or seventh step prayers or an eleventh step conversation that I have with my higher power that goes something like this: “Please help me stay out of your way today.” For the most part, when I’m praying for someone else, I do it in images. I focus on the person, visualize them surrounded by healing light, and I concentrate on sending all the love and compassion I possess into that image.
I don’t think I have any sort of healing powers, but I do sense that prayer isn’t supposed to be a passive activity. I attempt to connect to the spirit of the universe, and to me, that implies a bond, a strengthening and amplification of the spirit energy – if my motives are in the right place, divorced from selfishness, self-pity and fear, among other things. And if this were not so, if we played no part in this process, there would be no need to pray. Our god, whomever we conceive our god to be, would not need us to ask.
Also, my prayer does not occur at any set time during the day. It’s not ritualistic. I typically begin to pray sometime in the morning, and I am almost always in a state of prayer when I fall asleep at night, but it’s not because I’ve designated those times for prayer. Prayer, after awhile, became a natural state. Fearful? Uncertain? Irritated? Concerned? Those are times for me to pray. Grateful? Joyful? Serene? Relaxed? Those are also times for me to pray. And being a scattered, forgetful type, if I were to “save” my prayers for a designated time, I would surely forget some things, so I pray when and where I need to, without stopping to think, “I’m praying now.”
In a nutshell, the way I pray has evolved into a very vibrant, natural and harmonious part of my daily life.
Peace & Love,
Jody K.
7.19.2007
Jody K Shares
Commonly known out here in cyberspace as "Sugah," origins mostly by now forgotten, my name is Jody K. I have been on this journey for a modest stack of 1,725 twenty-four hour days, impressive when I look at it until I remember what a small number that is compared to the ones spent under the thumb of King Alcohol (and the various members of his loyal court). So, that being said, I am still very new at all this, still discovering things, small truths and doing my best to apply them to my life.
I do not claim a spiritual label, though as my bio reflects, much of my sense of spirituality has sprung forth from Buddhist teachings. The primary focus of my prayer and meditation is developing compassion for all sentient beings and divorcing myself from selfish desire.
Peace & Love,
Jody K
I do not claim a spiritual label, though as my bio reflects, much of my sense of spirituality has sprung forth from Buddhist teachings. The primary focus of my prayer and meditation is developing compassion for all sentient beings and divorcing myself from selfish desire.
Peace & Love,
Jody K
7.15.2007
Dick B Shares
Thank you for the invitation to post and the instructions for blogging. This enabled me to refresh and consolidate my various blogs and user names to the end of presenting a consistent, accurate, truthful account of just how important Quiet Time (as it was called by Anne Ripley Smith, the Oxford Group, and Rev. Sam Shoemaker), the Quiet Hour (as it was called by United Christian Endeavor Society of which Dr. Bob was an active participant in his younger years), and the Morning Watch (as the YMCA and others called it, basing it on some Biblical verses stressing the watch, the watchman, morning prayer, and morning "meditation.")
You can find foundational, helpful, and pristine verses on prayer, guidance, Bible study, morning prayer and meditation, the new birth, revelation, and pertinent guides the pioneers used - by looking in the Bible. For example, the verses in Proverbs 3:5-6, were often cited and followed.
As with so many ideas of diverse origin and disputes, the idea of how to seek and find and obey the will of God has been misstated, re-written, distorted, and shortened.As revealed by my 18 years of research into the Biblical history and roots of Alcoholics Anonymous, all of early A.A.'s basic ideas were taken from their study of the Bible. So stated Dr. Bob. And he stressed Bible study, prayer, and seeking the guidance of his Heavenly Father, our Creator.
This matter is covered in much detail in two of my books--Good Morning: Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation and Early A.A., and also Anne Smith's Journal, 1933-1939. In fact, it was Anne who regularly held quiet times for AAs and their families each morning early and at the Smith home in Akron.
You can look at the essentials in a couple of different ways; and they are definitely different in purpose and content:
First, what are the essentials of the process?
(a)Being born again of the spirit of God.
(b)Opening with prayer.
(c) Studying the Bible.
(d) Engaging in specific prayer as a group for guidance, forgiveness, thanksgiving, praise, peace, etc.
(e) Asking God for guidance, and checking out the answers for consistency with His written Word, the Good Book.
(f) As a group, there was often sharing and discussion facilitated by a leader such as Anne or Bob or Henrietta Seiberling and using devotionals such as the Upper Room, the Runner's Bible, My Utmost for His Highest, and others as stimulants.
(g) Closing with the Lord's Prayer.
Some people talk or write about "listening to God" and "writing down everything that comes to mind" and "checking" the thoughts with other believers. And this was done on occasion, particularly by Oxford Group members, but certainly not universally. The problem with these shortcuts is that they usually leave out the sine qua non of seeking and receiving revelation from God by "listening" (a new birth--John 3). The proponents of the ideas misunderstand the purpose of prayers and call them "two-way" prayers without realizing that God may not reveal or wish to reveal His particular will in a particular way at a particular time. Moreover, He instructs that believers are to ask in the name of Jesus Christ. And ignored by the human fashioning of a system of 'listening' are the variety of forms of revelation from our Creator Yahweh--by direct address, by angels, by prophets, by Jesus Christ, by the written Word, and by the spirit within the believer. For these many forms reflected by "Thus saith the Lord" and "The word came to ....." as spoken by prophets are not given adequate discussion or explanation or even sometimes any recognition at all. Nor is the fact that the choice of when and how and what is to be revealed is that of our Creator, not the supplicant. Nor is the function of prayer and Bible study covered appropriately. Nor is the importance of praise and thanksgivng. Nor is the minor importance of devotionals (today so often called "meditation" or "reflection" books which sometimes are not remotely related to God, the Bible, the new birth, Jesus Christ, or divine revelation.
Perhaps the best description of a well-conducted individual quiet time is that set forth about Dr. Bob and his prayer sessions three times a day. I'll leave that for your homework. Perhaps the best description of a group quiet time is that set forth by Dr. Bob's kids and in Anne Smith's Journal. Again! You do the digging.
Quite apart from the Biblical injunctions are suggested rules, which ignore the fact that we often need God the most, seek Him and His peace the most, and find ourselves doing turning to Him the most in the middle of a muddle. And here the Big Book itself covers the last point quite well up to a point.
The other aspect of suggested "meditation" practices are not necessarily required and may not even be Biblical in base. But here are some of the suggestions you will find described in Good Morning for historical accuracy: (a) Seek a quiet place. Not in a meeting? Not on a bus? (b)Get in a relaxed position. Standing in a circle or seated in a group or cross-legged on the floor? (c) Get quiet yourself. In the middle of a firestorm? (d) Write down every thought that comes to mind. Where is that found in the Bible? And who wants the garbage lists that often resulted from the practice? (e) "Check" your thoughts for propriety with another believer if you are in doubt. Which thoughts? What believer? And where in the Bible is that found as a mandate? Suppose they come from a prophet, an angel, God Himself, or Jesus Christ? Cross check them? (f) Clean house first because you can't see through a dirty window. How about the many verses in Psalms which say in effect: The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and delivered him from all his troubles? (g) What about the necessity for believing in God, coming to Him through Jesus Christ, discovering first what His Word says as to prayer and seeking wisdom and revelation, recognizing that without obedience and fellowship, the supplicant may be heading upstream without a paddle, a map, or a compass?
Little known is the fact that Bill Wilson once said he felt that much was lost when A.A. abandoned quiet time. He and Lois did his variety of it for many years, and he even composed a prayer they used. Bob and Anne were relentless in their observations of the importance of Quiet Time. And underlying it all is the Bible itself. Take away the Bible; take away our Heavenly Father; take away Jesus Christ; take away the gift of the Holy Spirit; and you have little or nothing that resembles early A.A. quiet time except personal opinion and the doctrines of men, not God.
God Bless, Dick B. dickb@dickb.com
http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml
You can find foundational, helpful, and pristine verses on prayer, guidance, Bible study, morning prayer and meditation, the new birth, revelation, and pertinent guides the pioneers used - by looking in the Bible. For example, the verses in Proverbs 3:5-6, were often cited and followed.
As with so many ideas of diverse origin and disputes, the idea of how to seek and find and obey the will of God has been misstated, re-written, distorted, and shortened.As revealed by my 18 years of research into the Biblical history and roots of Alcoholics Anonymous, all of early A.A.'s basic ideas were taken from their study of the Bible. So stated Dr. Bob. And he stressed Bible study, prayer, and seeking the guidance of his Heavenly Father, our Creator.
This matter is covered in much detail in two of my books--Good Morning: Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation and Early A.A., and also Anne Smith's Journal, 1933-1939. In fact, it was Anne who regularly held quiet times for AAs and their families each morning early and at the Smith home in Akron.
You can look at the essentials in a couple of different ways; and they are definitely different in purpose and content:
First, what are the essentials of the process?
(a)Being born again of the spirit of God.
(b)Opening with prayer.
(c) Studying the Bible.
(d) Engaging in specific prayer as a group for guidance, forgiveness, thanksgiving, praise, peace, etc.
(e) Asking God for guidance, and checking out the answers for consistency with His written Word, the Good Book.
(f) As a group, there was often sharing and discussion facilitated by a leader such as Anne or Bob or Henrietta Seiberling and using devotionals such as the Upper Room, the Runner's Bible, My Utmost for His Highest, and others as stimulants.
(g) Closing with the Lord's Prayer.
Some people talk or write about "listening to God" and "writing down everything that comes to mind" and "checking" the thoughts with other believers. And this was done on occasion, particularly by Oxford Group members, but certainly not universally. The problem with these shortcuts is that they usually leave out the sine qua non of seeking and receiving revelation from God by "listening" (a new birth--John 3). The proponents of the ideas misunderstand the purpose of prayers and call them "two-way" prayers without realizing that God may not reveal or wish to reveal His particular will in a particular way at a particular time. Moreover, He instructs that believers are to ask in the name of Jesus Christ. And ignored by the human fashioning of a system of 'listening' are the variety of forms of revelation from our Creator Yahweh--by direct address, by angels, by prophets, by Jesus Christ, by the written Word, and by the spirit within the believer. For these many forms reflected by "Thus saith the Lord" and "The word came to ....." as spoken by prophets are not given adequate discussion or explanation or even sometimes any recognition at all. Nor is the fact that the choice of when and how and what is to be revealed is that of our Creator, not the supplicant. Nor is the function of prayer and Bible study covered appropriately. Nor is the importance of praise and thanksgivng. Nor is the minor importance of devotionals (today so often called "meditation" or "reflection" books which sometimes are not remotely related to God, the Bible, the new birth, Jesus Christ, or divine revelation.
Perhaps the best description of a well-conducted individual quiet time is that set forth about Dr. Bob and his prayer sessions three times a day. I'll leave that for your homework. Perhaps the best description of a group quiet time is that set forth by Dr. Bob's kids and in Anne Smith's Journal. Again! You do the digging.
Quite apart from the Biblical injunctions are suggested rules, which ignore the fact that we often need God the most, seek Him and His peace the most, and find ourselves doing turning to Him the most in the middle of a muddle. And here the Big Book itself covers the last point quite well up to a point.
The other aspect of suggested "meditation" practices are not necessarily required and may not even be Biblical in base. But here are some of the suggestions you will find described in Good Morning for historical accuracy: (a) Seek a quiet place. Not in a meeting? Not on a bus? (b)Get in a relaxed position. Standing in a circle or seated in a group or cross-legged on the floor? (c) Get quiet yourself. In the middle of a firestorm? (d) Write down every thought that comes to mind. Where is that found in the Bible? And who wants the garbage lists that often resulted from the practice? (e) "Check" your thoughts for propriety with another believer if you are in doubt. Which thoughts? What believer? And where in the Bible is that found as a mandate? Suppose they come from a prophet, an angel, God Himself, or Jesus Christ? Cross check them? (f) Clean house first because you can't see through a dirty window. How about the many verses in Psalms which say in effect: The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and delivered him from all his troubles? (g) What about the necessity for believing in God, coming to Him through Jesus Christ, discovering first what His Word says as to prayer and seeking wisdom and revelation, recognizing that without obedience and fellowship, the supplicant may be heading upstream without a paddle, a map, or a compass?
Little known is the fact that Bill Wilson once said he felt that much was lost when A.A. abandoned quiet time. He and Lois did his variety of it for many years, and he even composed a prayer they used. Bob and Anne were relentless in their observations of the importance of Quiet Time. And underlying it all is the Bible itself. Take away the Bible; take away our Heavenly Father; take away Jesus Christ; take away the gift of the Holy Spirit; and you have little or nothing that resembles early A.A. quiet time except personal opinion and the doctrines of men, not God.
God Bless, Dick B. dickb@dickb.com
http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml
7.13.2007
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