Each of us has a default “prayer-style”—the way we have been taught and grown accustomed to praying. Often our default prayer-style is one in which prayer is utilized like a tool. Examples are of tool-like prayer are petition and intercession. But there is another prayer-style that is critical to our growth and maturity as Jesus’s disciples. It’s prayer that is more like a potter’s wheel on which we are being formed by God.
In his new book, Water to Wine, pastor Brian Zahnd writes, “When it comes to spiritual formation, we are what we pray. Without wise input that comes from outside ourselves, we will never change.” In the message Sunday, pastor T. C. calls this formative prayer-style “Potter’s Wheel Prayer,” and describes it as: 1) Scheduled; 2) Structured; and 3) Submitted to. Potter’s Wheel Prayer is a practice or rhythm of prayer that we do not “make up” on our own. Instead, it consists of prayers that are well- crafted, theologically-sound, and time-tested. And Potter’s Wheel Prayer forms us in three important ways: 1) Our Vocabulary; 2) Our Imagination; and 3) Our Character- in-action.
As we approach the Christian season of Lent, starting on Ash Wednesday, let us take advantage of this opportunity to be formed through prayer, as we seek to follow in Jesus’s footsteps to the Cross.