For C.S. Lewis to write a book on prayer would have been too hard. It would have been boring, dull, and full of claims he could not substantiate. So instead he wrote, "Letters to Malcom" (by the way, I know the correct grammar for a book title is to underline it, but because of limited formatting here on the internet, I put the titles in quotes, I hope you don't mind). These were imaginary letters to an imaginary (I assume) friend in which Lewis discussed his thoughts on prayer and many other things. How fun would that book have been to write! Not only did he put down all the thoughts he wanted to convey to the general public in the letters, but he had to imagine what the response of his dear friend had been and so formulate his writing. It is not, I think, unlike when I write and wonder what some of my close friends would say in response to my ideas or opinions and then try to address such objections or comments before they are made.
It was, I believe, a quote from C.S. Lewis in a different book on prayer (but by Philip Yancey) which taught me that we can pray for past events, so long as we do not know the outcome. I heard once of a man who said, jokingly I believe, that he always prayed his parents would meet or that a great Christian writer would be converted. But this was silly, since he knew the positive outcome of both. While he could pray in thanksgiving for the occurrence of the events, intercessory prayer was no longer needed. On the other hand, if his friends had handed him St. Augustine's "Confessions," and he had proceeded to read it, knowing nothing of Augustine but only that he truly lived, it would seem reasonable to pray for his conversion, until one had finished the book and found that said conversion had, indeed, happened. As he said, our prayers are answered from eternity (no matter what the answer is) - because God is outside of time as we know it.
Another mind-boggling concept that Lewis put forth in his book was about our attitude toward prayer. It's hard, isn't it? I mean, he blatantly stated that many times we rush through it, get distracted easily from it, or do it out of a sense of obligation. I have been driven to distraction by how much I am distracted at prayer. But Lewis also adds an excellent point - perhaps the times when we pray because we feel obligated to, or when it is hardest to do so because we are tired or distracted or bored, are the times when our prayers are most pleasing to God. Don't get me wrong, I think we need to cultivate a joy of prayer and focus on developing our relationship with God. But it makes perfect sense that it doesn't make sense to pray, especially if you don't enjoy it. So forcing yourself to do something unpleasant is a true sign of belief, of faith, of desire to please God. Think about it - a man who is scared for his life may pray very earnestly and without distraction even if he has never prayed before. Another man may dutifully sit in his room twice a day to speak to the Almighty, even when he'd rather be fishing or reading or eating or sleeping. Doesn't the second man show more of a devotion? A desire to cultivate a relationship?
Another point he makes is that ready-made prayer and home-made prayers have a blurry line between the two. Some people look down on ready-made prayers, when in reality, the Lord's Prayer is one of the most popular prayers of all time (and rightly so, given its context). But Lewis also points out that many times our prayers become formulaic, whether we mean for them to or not, and sometimes they become outright repetitive. So is a home-made prayer recited every night any better than someone else's prayer recited every night? Wouldn't it be the heart behind the prayer that matters more than who came up with the original words? I have also heard that some repetitive prayers serve more as a meditation tool - to be background noise to the heart as the heart works out its own prayer, whether that prayer be with words or not.
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