Lynne Baab

Praying about the flow of time: The incarnation and prayer

Lynne Baab • Tuesday December 17 2024

In a recent guest sermon at our church, artist/writer/performer Scott Erickson said, “Prayer is paying attention to God’s presence already there in our lives.” His words summarized the central idea I was pondering for this just-before-Christmas blog post.

I encourage you to ponder what difference it makes for your prayers that God became incarnate in Jesus. At Christmas, we celebrate Immanuel, God with us here on earth.  At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit brought the incarnate God into our hearts and minds — “God’s presence already there in our lives.” We can grow in prayer by pondering this amazing reality of God with us.

Sure, we will always burst out with prayers that come from a sense of God’s absence or our frustration with how things are: “God, why aren’t you healing my beloved relative? Please act in this situation.” “Holy Spirit, why didn’t you guide my friend on his motorcycle? Please, I beg you, comfort his family and friends. Comfort me as I mourn his loss.” Those “where are you, God?” prayers are real and visceral.

In hard times, “thank you that you’re here” prayers require focus and effort. Other times they come easily. Whether we are aware of God’s presence with us in prayer or not, sometimes the Holy Spirit guides our prayer through whispers and nudges. God may whisper to us the name of someone to pray for. Or we may experience the Holy Spirit’s nudge to pray in a particular way. These whispers and nudges are possible because Jesus became flesh to walk on this earth with us and then sent the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit, Jesus continues to be present beside us and in us.

God’s whispers and nudges call us to prayer and guide our prayers. These moments can happen any time as we go about our daily lives or when we are intentionally praying. In addition, we can intentionally pause in silence to try to hear God’s voice. Some of us have specific places where we most often hear God speak, maybe on a favorite walk in nature or in an empty church.

In her wonderful Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun writes, “Listening prayer allows God to set the agenda for prayer and responds to the word that is given.” [1] She mentions Samuel’s words to God, “Speak, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10), and Jesus’s words, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

Calhoun mentions several practices that facilitate listening to God, including simply pausing and trying to listen, plus these two helpful ideas:

• “reading a scripture and listening to what ‘lights’ up, letting this be the focus of prayer
• notice when a song or reading grabs at the heart; don’t move on; listen for what God is saying in that moment and respond.” [2]

She also gives this helpful advice:

“Don’t worry about constant inattention in listening prayer. The mind is designed to make connections and wander. . . . Rather than judging ourselves as a miserable failure on the basis of inner detours, humbly return listening attention to Jesus. The more we practice turning from self-judgment to Jesus, the quieter our center becomes. Returning to Jesus is how we learn to wait attentively.” [3]

Calhoun also notes, “Persevering in listening prayer is an act of trust that God is present.” [4] God’s presence can also encourage us simply to rest in God’s love. Psalm 131 is my latest favorite psalm because it encourages me to do that.

In addition to fueling our listening prayers and our ability to rest in God with us, the incarnation can guide our prayers for church leaders. “Lord, help my pastors and other who lead the church feel your presence, hear your whispers, and follow your nudges.” The incarnation can help us pray wisely for those who head up Christian ministries and mission agencies, nationally and internationally. “Holy Spirit, be present and active in those who provide leadership for the missions and ministries I care about. Guide those leaders with your voice and presence.”

When we think about Christians in war-torn places, we can pray for a strong sense of God’s presence with them. When we think of Christians working to bring food aid, education, and health care in poor neighborhoods in our own country and in countries overseas, we can pray specifically for them, inspired by the incarnation. We can pray that God’s presence would feel real and that they would follow the Holy Spirit’s leading.

One of the biggest challenges of ministry and mission is the overwhelming pressure to meet huge needs. That pressure, and the fatigue that comes with it, often dulls our ears and eyes, so we find it difficult to feel God’s presence and hear God’s voice. When we pray for self-care and resilience for Christian leaders, one component of our prayers can relate to these incarnation themes of presence and listening.

Speak, Lord, your servant is listening. . . . Or trying to listen. . . . Or hoping to quiet myself enough to try to listen. . . . Open my ears. Help me pursue times and settings that make listening to you more likely. Help me follow what I hear. Thank you for the times I hear your voice in scripture, songs, worship services, and quiet moments. Thank you for your presence here, today, right now.

֍ ֍ ֍

Two ways to subscribe.

If you’d like to receive an email when I post on this blog, sign up below under “subscribe.” That email and the posts on this blog are free and accessible for all.

If you’d like to help me cover the expenses for this blog and website, plus get a bonus post every month, you can subscribe on Patreon for $3 or $6 per month. My bonus posts focus on one or more of the hundreds of vivid quotations I’ve collected over five decades.

֍ ֍ ֍

Past blog posts with Advent and Christmas themes:

• Grief AND thankfulness in the Christmas story
• Receptivity and Offering: Preparing for Christmas
• Draw near: Praying at Advent

Next week: Two noteworthy post-Christmas events. Illustration by Dave Baab.

[1] and [2] Adele Alberg Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us (InterVarsity Press, 2015), 266.

[3] and [4] Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, 268.

Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christians spiritual practices. Read more »

Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her two 2024 books, both of them illustrated with her talented husband Dave's watercolors. She is thrilled at how good the watercolors look in the printed books, and in the kindle versions, if read on a phone, the watercolors glow. Friendship, Listening and Empathy: A Prayer Guide guides the reader into new ways to pray about the topics in the title. Draw Near: A Lenten Devotional guides the reader to a psalm for each day of Lent and offers insightful reflection/discussion questions that can be used alone or in groups. 

Another recent book is Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian  Life, available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her most popular book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.

You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics: empathy, bringing spiritual practices to life. Sabbath keeping for recent grads., and Sabbath keeping for families and children.

Lynne was interviewed for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills. 

Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.

"Lynne's writing is beautiful. Her tone has such a note of hope and excitement about growth. It is gentle and affirming."
— a reader

"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
— a reader of Sabbath Keeping