I stumbled on fixed-hour prayer about eight years ago. After my father passed away, I found my energy levels really low, and I couldn’t sustain my usual devotional life. I did all the regular things: the ACTS acrostic and extemporaneous prayer. I replicated prayer meetings on a one-on-one basis. But nothing seemed to work. I had heard a priest talk about the Daily Office, so, even though it sounded like cheating to me, I thought I would try reading other people’s prayers.
I couldn’t find that particular prayer book, but I came across The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle. Her adaptation of the Benedictine prayer format included readings every three hours of the day, plus one for bedtime. I started with once a day, then twice, and soon I was up to four times a day. Fixed-hour prayer transformed my prayer life.
Until that time, I had not preached often on daily prayer, because I didn’t want to preach something that I wasn’t doing myself. Our contemporary models for prayer were somehow superhuman: great intercessors like Rees Howells praying for miracles. But as I read the Bible, I began to see how the patriarchs and prophets seemed to order their lives by regular times of prayer. So did Jesus. The disciples, in Acts, went to the synagogue for prayer at nine in the morning, and Peter prayed on the rooftop at noon. It’s throughout Scripture—scheduled prayer, several times each day.
After a while, I began talking about my prayer experiences and sharing The Divine Hours with the church. Small prayers several times a day sounds like a more realistic goal. It can be done in less than four minutes; I’ve timed it. Or you can linger over a thought or phrase for an hour.
I was so excited about my experience that I contacted Phyllis Tickle about putting the book online. She said sure, so we approached the publisher. I was surprised, but Doubleday granted us permission, and today our church hosts The Divine Hours website.
Fixed-hour prayer has changed my prayer life, and many of the people in our congregation who practice it report similar experiences. We are meditating deeply on Scripture. We are learning to appreciate silence. And many say these brief periods of prayer lead to long, rich times in the presence of God.
People in the Vineyard lean toward the mystical side already, but our exuberant celebrations are being matched by quiet seasons with God. I often hear someone say, “You won’t believe what happened to me in prayer!”
And we are learning about spiritual communion. We are not alone in prayer, but with others all over the world in their own fixed hours, and with believers throughout history whose prayers we read and make our own. Fixed hour prayer is uniting us together in the Spirit.
—Ken Wilson is pastor of Ann Arbor Vineyard Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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