Prayer is one of the most important areas of a Christian's life. Written in 2010 by spiritual formation leader, Bishop Rueben P. Job, When You Pray has reached over 20,000 readers since its publication. This daily prayer guide offers a full year of readings and scripture and is an excellent tool to use in daily prayer time. Each weekly segment includes daily office of scripture, prayer, offering of self and blessing, a brief essay from the author, and collection of quotes from well-known voices in spiritual formation. The new edition includes the same essays with refreshed weekly scripture readings and quotes as well as additional material and prayers. Explore the daily practices of living a prayerful life. Rueben P. Job was a United Methodist bishop, pastor and acclaimed author and served as World Editor of The Upper Room publishing program. Best-known for the classic book, Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living, he also authored or co-authored A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants, A Wesleyan Spiritual Reader, Living Fully, Dying Well, Listen, and co-edited Finding Our Way: Love and Law in The United Methodist Church. Bishop Job also chaired the Hymnal Revision Committee that developed the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal. Associate Pastor, Belmont United Methodist Church, Nashville, TN When You Pray Daily Practices For Prayerful Living By Rueben P. Job, Pamela C. Hawkins Abingdon Press Copyright © 2018 Abingdon Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5018-5853-6 CHAPTER 1 Week 1 Looking Forward Approaching God with Intention Holy God of unconditional love and unlimited presence, I come to make myself fully available to you, your will, and your way. Sit in silence and stillness for a few moments, lengthening the time each day as you are able. Becoming Aware of God's Presence Tell me all about your faithful love come morning time, because I trust you. (Psalm 143:8a) Inviting God's Intervention Show me the way I should go, because I offer my life up to you. (Psalm 143:8b) Listening for God's Voice Open yourself to hear what God is saying to you through the Scriptures. This is what Isaiah, Amoz's son, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In the days to come   the mountain of the LORD's house   will be the highest of the mountains.   It will be lifted above the hills;      peoples will stream to it. Many nations will go and say, "Come, let's go up to the LORD's mountain,   to the house of Jacob's God      so that he may teach us his ways      and we may walk in God's paths." Instruction will come from Zion;   the LORD's word from Jerusalem. God will judge between the nations,   and settle disputes of mighty nations. Then they will beat their swords into iron plows   and their spears into pruning tools. Nation will not take up sword against nation;   they will no longer learn how to   make war. Come, house of Jacob,   let's walk by the LORD's light. (Isaiah 2:1-5) Alternative Readings Luke 21:25-36 Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Isaiah 1:10-20 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Luke 21:5-19 Practicing Spiritual Reading As you read the essay and one or more quotations each day, do so with an openness for further contemplation on the week's theme. Ask God, Is there a word or prayer for my life in these words? Ineffable moments are rare for most of us. The testimony of the saints confirms our own experience. While our hunger for God is universal and has been identified from the time of Adam and Eve to be our own, those peak moments of communion or union with God are extremely rare. They are there, perhaps to lure us or to reassure us, but they are not there on command or with predictable regularity. For the saints who have gone before and for us, much of life is lived out on the level plains. The plains of daily existence may be marked with deep awareness on the presence of One who is near and who sustains us, or the quiet companionship of One who guides and upholds, but there is awareness of a relationship that is life-giving. (Job, A Guide to Retreat, 19.) Perhaps the most startling thought that can inhabit the human imagination is that a man or a woman, earthbound and stuttering, can speak meaningfully of God. (Ben Campbell Johnson, GodSpeech: Putting Divine Disclosures into Human Words, 30.) Today the heart of God is an open wound of love. He aches over our distance and preoccupation. He mourns that we do not draw near to him. He grieves that we have forgotten him. He weeps over our obsession with muchness and manyness. He longs for our presence. (Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, 1.) In prayer we say who in fact we are — not who we should be, nor who we wish we were, but who we are. All prayer begins with this confession. (Ann and Barry Ulanov, Primary Speech: A Psychology of Prayer, 1.) We are like children being taught a job by a loving parent who teaches by allowing us to help with the job. And what is