I’ve read that in conversations we should find ourselves listening as much as talking. Of course, this just makes sense – it would be selfish if we were in the habit of listening 30% of the time and talking 70% of the time.
But does this apply to our conversations (i. e. prayer) with God? Sure. God wants to do good things for us. He wants to speak his words in his way. He wants to continuously transform us into the image of Christ. So wouldn’t God want us to spend time listening for him, or at least being in a receptive mode so we could receive anything he might want to do? That’s why the image for this post is someone listening to headphones: they are in receptive, listening mode.
It is common to think of prayer time as a time when we talk the whole time. We thank him for good things, we praise him, we make requests, we pour out our heart, etc. But shouldn’t about half of our prayer time involve being quiet and listening? What if God wants to speak softly to our heart? What if he just wants us to soak in his presence? What if he wants to answer a question we asked of him?
These times of prayer we refer to as receptive prayer. Historically, this type of prayer was referred to as contemplative prayer. We can briefly define it as receptive rest in God; in other words, quiet receptivity. It gives God a chance to work, even if secretly. Receptive prayer is prayer that focuses on the presence of God with a receptive attitude. We know that God is present inside us because scripture teaches that we have the Holy Spirit inside us and because we are united with Christ in the Body of Christ. Thus, in receptive prayer we abide in the presence of God by faith and remain receptive to whatever He might want to do. We can compare it to watching a sunset: one just watches and receives the beauty of the sunset and doesn’t try to analyze it. Analyzing the sunset reduces the enjoyment and reception of the awe and beauty.
“We can briefly define it as receptive rest in God. It gives God a chance to work, even if secretly.”
We find the idea of receptive prayer in the Bible in verses that talk about being still such as Ps 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God”; Ps. 37 “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him,”; Ps. 130:5-6 “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning,”; Ps. 131:2 “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
Also, any passage that talks about God speaking implies that we should be listening!
We also find receptive prayer in verses that talk about beholding Jesus since one needs to be in a receptive mode to behold something. The idea of beholding God or Jesus is found in I Cor. 13:12 (“now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face”); II Cor. 3:18 (“we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed”); Heb. 12:2 (“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith”.)
Looking over the centuries we find that most of the great Christian spiritual teachers believed in receptive prayer. To name just a few consider Augustine, Chrysostom, Bernard of Clairvaux, Brother Lawrence, and puritans John Owen, Jonathan Edwards and Richard Baxter. And receptive prayer (in other words, Christian contemplation) is not like Buddhist prayer and did not come from Buddhism. In Buddhism there is no infinite personal god to listen to or focus on. They do not learn to be aware of the personal presence of God.
The great teachers called it contemplation but it is the same thing as receptive prayer. When you get used to it you will be able to just go into receptive prayer in a few seconds. But when you are starting it helps to have some detailed instruction.
Here are the steps of basic/beginning contemplation:
- Quiet one’s inner self.
- To calm your mind, slowly repeat a word like “Jesus” or “peace” or “humility” but don’t focus on it. Just be still.
- If/when your mind starts to relax let go of the word.
- Set your heart to reliance on God – for your life and for this prayer time.
- Awareness of your 3 living power sources. Find your inner awareness of:
- Your new self – where you desire God and good. Use an image if you have one.
- Find your inner awareness of Spirit. If you can sense him then spend 3 minutes getting your heart used to abiding in the Spirit. Use an image if you have one.
- Recall your union with Christ. Get a favorite biblical image of how you are connected to Christ. See Sec. 14.a.
- Acceptance of one’s awareness, even if it is less than you want.
- Dwelling in the awareness one has. Sit. Recline.
- Illustration: when are sitting with a close friend enjoying beautiful scenery, you don’t need to talk, you can just sit and enjoy the scenery in the presence of your friend.
- OR imagine you are leaning your head back on Jesus like a pillow as Jesus is reclining on the ground.
- Receptivity to whatever God may do, or just peaceful or loving attentiveness. Some things he will do secretly.
You don’t need a huge amount of time to start receptive prayer. You can just start with 5 minutes. You may find that you just enjoy going longer. You can even do just one minute of receptive prayer during a short time out at work.
What are the benefits of receptive prayer? They are many:
- If we sense his presence then we can just soak in him or behold him.
- We can become more aware of what God is doing in us.
- We learn to avoid the influence of busyness.
- God may speak softly to our heart.
- God may quietly answer a question we asked of him.
- We can learn to trust him even when he doesn’t feel present.
- We can learn to keep our soul at peace, or centered on him.
- It gives God a chance to point out weaknesses or faults he wants to work on.
- We will become more aware of what is happening inside us especially our deeper thoughts and feelings.
Many great Christians have considered this essential to their spiritual growth. We hope that you make receptive prayer a regular part of your prayer life!
