So much of them in us
LETTER BY GRACE POUCH
I can’t imagine my own prayer life without the shaping influence of mentors — family, Renovaré team members, seminary and church guides. And also mentors from history and the Bible. What a gift to peek in on prayers in Scripture — the good ones, the awkward ones, the ones that don’t go so well.
I think of Gideon’s back and forth with the Lord, Moses’s bold request on behalf of his people, and the tears of Hannah in the house of God.
It’s important not to boil down Bible stories to moralistic aphorisms, or to elevate the human characters to superheroes. But a normal human can still make an excellent mentor. What a sadness if — in an attempt to make God central so humans don’t steal the show — we stop paying attention to people in the story. We’re people. There is so much of us in them, so much of them in us. Christ is of course the chief Character, the true Hero. But the grand story of God-with-us cannot be told without the people.
For all of us, from youngest child to oldest granny, mentors are indispensable, and the Bible is a trustworthy place to find them. Scripture provides a way to listen to other people from long ago and to learn from them — not just who God is, but who we are, who we can become, and how we enter into transforming friendship with God.
A prayer from John Baillie,
You have been the refuge of good and wise people in every generation .…
The patriarchs trusted You and were not put to shame:
The prophets sought You and You committed Your word to their lips:
The psalmists rejoiced in You and You were present in their songs:
The apostles waited upon You and they were filled with Your Holy Spirit:
The martyrs called upon You and You were with them in the midst of the flame:
Forbid it, Holy Lord, that I should fail to profit by these great memories of the ages that are gone by, or to enter into the glorious inheritance which You have prepared for me; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
P.S. I encountered life-changing mentors in the Renovaré Institute. Applications for the 2025 – 2027 Cohort with residencies in North Carolina are due Feb. 1!
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LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
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1.
“We need mentors in prayer, and the psalmist is one of the best,” writes Chris Hall.
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2.
Theologian David Taylor shares a review of his top eleven books on prayer, including Richard Foster’s Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home.
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3.
Pull up a chair to learn from a trustworthy guide on prayer, Dallas Willard. In this excerpt, Dallas helps us understand three common barriers to hearing God clearly.
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4.
Frank Laubach learned to carry on silent conversation with God throughout the day, praying for other people “through God, using God as my glasses, colored with his love for them.”
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5.
Gem Fadling reminds us of “the power of short prayers“ and points us to the simple but powerful prayer of Abba Macarius: Lord, as you will, and as you know, have mercy.
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6.
I learned and experienced so much from Nate Foster’s meditation using the Serenity Prayer, and have returned to it many times over the past five years.
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
WORTH QUOTING
“Prayer is listening as well as speaking, receiving as well as asking; and its deepest mood is friendship held in reverence.”
– George Buttrick
Devotional Classics
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TO CONTEMPLATE
Elisha Raising the Son of the Shunamite
Frederic Leighton 1881
(source)
This painting represents Elisha’s prayer to the Lord to raise a young boy to life — a surprisingly physical prayer that brought him face to face with the dead child (2 Kings 4:18 – 37). He must have learned this unusual way of praying from his mentor, Elijah, who used the same mannerisms when he cried out to God for the life of the widow’s son. (1 Kings 17:17 – 24). The mentor relationship of Elijah to Elisha, which involved passing on not just knowledge but power and even “a double share” of Elijah’s spirit to the younger prophet, is one of my favorite parts of scripture. I wish I could see more that happened behind the scenes of that training!
TO PONDER
Is there someone who stands out in your mind as a person of vibrant, heartfelt prayer? How might you observe or listen to their wisdom?