Drop and Give Him Five!

How are your toes today? I hope yours are strappy-sandal ready but mine, dear sisters, are broken and bloody. That would be because C.S. Lewis through his book, The Screwtape Letters, has stomped all over them. Stomped and jumped and then flattened with the Mashed Potato Dance. I am knocked off my feet for the moment but in this case it is a good thing because I am reminded I should be on my knees anyway.

For those who have not read this masterpiece (okay, so I love Lewis), it is presented as a series of letters from Screwtape who is an demonic under-secretary of Satan. He is writing to his nephew, Wormwood, with advice on causing a new convert to Christianity to fall. Throughout the book, Screwtape mentors Wormwood in attacking areas of Christian weakness. One of the first subjects discussed is prayer.

The assault on my pedicure began when I read these words in Chapter 4 of the book: (Yes, I am broken to pieces by Chapter 4. By Chapter 30 I will be in ICU.) In speaking of the new Christian breaking from the habit of 'childhood parrot prayers', Screwtape says:

"..he may be persuaded to aim at something entirely spontaneous, inward,
informal, and unregularised; and what this will actually mean to a beginner will
be an effort to produce in himself a vaguely devotional mood in which real
concentration of will and intelligence have no part. One of their poets,
Coleridge, has recorded that he did not pray 'with moving lips and bended knees'
but merely 'composed his spirit to love' and indulged in a 'sense of
supplication'. That is exactly the sort of prayer we want; and since it bears a
superficial resemblance to the prayer of silence as practised by those who are
very far advanced in the Enemy's (God's) service, clever and lazy patients (new
Christians) can be taken in by it for a very long time. At the very least, they
can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no real difference to their
prayers; for they constantly forget, what you must always remember, that they
are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny
how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds; in reality our
best work is done by keeping things out."

As a somewhat young mother of four, I can not begin to tell you the number of books, articles, and teachers I have heard encourage the matter of 'popcorn prayers' or 'praying as you go' in this season of life. Let me be perfectly clear when I say, AMEN, we should absolutely do this! I need Jesus when I am staring at 12 loads of laundry or caring for a sick child or driving between three different baseball fields. I talk to God all day long and it is often in the most mundane errands when He gives me teaching illustrations that are relevant to women like me. Now that I have established I am a total 'pray as you go' kind of girl and that I in no way condemn this practice, here is what I believe the Spirit began to whisper to me:


1. Have I let this type of 'praying as I go' produce in me a devotional mood which leaves me with only a sense of supplication?

2. Do my prayers require a concentration of my will and intelligence in my approaching the throne of a Holy God? Am I praying in spoken word so my sentences have to make real sense?

3. How often do I take a physical position of bended knee or face-on-the-floor prayer?

4. OUCH.

Now that I have honestly answered these questions for myself I feel the need to change my prayer rituals. Don't get me wrong, I DO pray. I must. It is in the Preacher Wife Handbook. But often I am seated in a chair or lying in bed or driving down the road. I am in no way suggesting there is a holiness in positioning - legalism is SO not my thing- but I am saying that I agree with Lewis' Screwtape in his suggestion that 'what their bodies do affect their souls'. Consider with me the intensity of our petitions of the Father that are offered in spoken word while prostrate or on bended knee. Would you agree with me that it is during these times we go down as one woman and come up as another? Do you think perhaps this is the kind of prayer which frightens Satan most? I think of times past when I have been in serious pursuit of the heart of God and realize this is when I have made the most concerted efforts to get in the floor on my face before Him.

So I wonder, what would happen to a group of women who made this their habit? What Godly fire would ignite in a community where women were being changed a little bit every single day because they would not let go of God until He blessed them (Gen 32:26)? I think we would turn a place upside down, girls. Will you be willing to try?

Here is the challenge: Will you join me in carving out five minutes of your day to bend the knee and offer a spoken prayer to the One who is continually making intercession for us? I am going to commit to this and if there is a day I feel I may not honor my word, I will remember you and know I am being held accountable. Do not feel you have to do this but I hope you will. We may fail but you know what? God will not be mad. Let our motivation be a desire to be women who pray like Jesus:

"And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." (Matthew 26:39)

I don't know about you, but I have a whole lot of cups before me. Many of them pass, many of them don't. No matter what is placed in front of us, it is on our faces where we will find the strength for His will. The more we exercise this privilege, the stronger we will become.

Let's start now.... drop and give Him five!