Engaging God: Timeless Prayer

I don't want to post about praying within the blogosphere; I want to pray here in the blogosphere! And I'm hoping you'll join me. :-)

There are a number of ways one can pray profitably. Most of them may not work out here. They are too individual. But there is one way to pray that I believe will work out here. There is a specific kind of corporate prayer into which I believe we can all join and be blessed as both listeners and speakers.

Rev 4:8-12
And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

And

Revelation 19:1-4
And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.

Please do me a favor, at this point. Give this a chance to be something more than worship, at least as we currently use that word. For just a minute, entertain the hope that this might be something more.

There are two commands that excel above all others, love the Lord, and love each other. Prayer cannot encompass everything expressed in those commands, but it embraces more than you might guess.

Prayer is a chance to appreciate our God.
Prayer is a chance to depend upon Him.
Prayer is a chance to declare His entire fitness.
Prayer is a chance to flee to Him in fears.
Prayer is a chance to rejoice in His many triumphs.
Prayer is a chance to awe at the obstacles He leaps.
Prayer is a chance to know Him.
Prayer is a chance to know ourselves through His eyes.

Prayer is a fine conduit for fulfilling those two great commandments. Is there anything more that any lovers do, than what is in that list?

Like any conduit, though, prayer is nothing if nothing flows through it. (How many of you are old enough to have been raised on, "Nothing from nothing and nothing remains?") I will also say that prayer is very little, if very little flows through it. How many of us have given up on "eloquent" prayers? Or how many of us pray nothing but eloquence?

There is a prayer, very like the elders pray in the Revelation, that we can pray together and that has deep meaning. There are innumerable such prayers, but there are 150 that we all know, and want to know better.

I am extending an offer to investigate the Psalms experimentally with as many people as would like to go.

To this end, I have created a group blog on the Blogger Beta site called "Timeless Prayer."

I would like to invite any of you (and anyone else) who would like to pray through the Psalms to join me as editors of Timeless Prayers. We will speak and hear the Psalms in light of the revelation of Jesus Christ 500-1500 years after they were written, record these new perspectives, and pray them again. Reply to the first post over there, and I will add you as an editor. (On blogger beta, I have taken the name, Odepoke.)

May the Lord be blessed in our experiments.