More from Charlie Levine on the topic of prayer…first, a quick vid contradicting all of the points below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1g8WCA7mJk (Decide for yourself whether Charlie or Jim is more reliable on this.)

Prayer is an ongoing conversation with someone who knows the whole story and has my best interest at heart. Someone who wants blessings, who wants my requests for me even more than I want them for me. Jesus intercedes for me, so even if I have imperfect prayers, he is perfect and relays them to God the Father. So, when I call down fire on the Pittsburgh Steelers, or the guy who cut me off in traffic…you get the idea.
Prayer is powerful. Words are powerful. For years I was angry that it seemed like God just gave us these hollow little words, like all these bad things could happen in real life, and that all we could do as Christians was to relabel bad situations and call our impotent prayers, in an ultra-soothing Christa Tippett voice, “just part of the mystery of faith and becoming”.  P.J. O’Rourke had a great phrase that stuck with me. “Trying to fight evil with air freshener”. That’s what I thought for a long time about prayer.

But, words and intentionality are powerful and that theme kept coming up and I kept seeing it in action. At first when I saw “What The Bleep” and read up on the law of attraction it seemed like trying to make an end run around God.

Ha! We’ve got you figured out, Old Man!

But, when you look at what God says about prayer, about hope and expectations and faith, then it would seem like he has given us some powerful tools for changing the world and ourselves. He is eager to bless, granted, not as a cosmic butler, but as a father who wants to give good gifts that will have the greatest positive effect on his children.

By the way, usually the unspoken part of the cosmic butler analogy leaves you thinking, OK, then does he want me to NOT ask and just suck it up and be stoic? Just a side note for anyone out there trying to distance yourself from the funky “name it and claim it, declare it, etc.” crowd. Just sayin’.

And I have experienced some pretty miraculous stuff. I’ve been healed of scoliosis, and largely healed of allergies. My business has grown, though not past my ability to handle it (Which really does highlight my need to grow more as a person, not to figure out any formula for mystically making wealth fall from the sky). I’ve seen other people experience that as well. I feel like a fundamentally different person. I’ve seen other people make huge strides forward in their lives and I can only credit God’s involvement. Seriously. There was no mistaking his involvement.

But, I’m still working on it and of course, wanted a formula or at least a way to insure a more predictable outcome.

For much of last year I embraced that idea of God’s Word being powerful when used in prayer, along with ramped up obedience, but my approach was still “Hey! I’ve found the magic formula!

“Ha! Now I’ve really got you figured out, Old Man!”

And I was still asking for things to prop me up without changing and putting off my old and false self. It was like I wanted to win the lottery rather than becoming smart about handling money. I wanted the girl to magically drop into my life, without the effort of becoming the man that would be attractive to the kind of woman I want to be with. You get the picture.

Then there was the whole obedience thing. 2011 was the Year of Magical Thinking. “If I try really hard to obey, then God has to bless me! Even though I don’t like it!”

When doing something that falls under the category of “good” or “obedience” sets off alarm bells, crosses your boundaries, makes you angry, and defies any sort of logic, then chances are, it’s not something you should be doing.

In “obeying” I felt like I opened the door for other peoples’ chaos to become my own. And, consistent with what I had faith for, I got more of other peoples’ chaos. I hit a breaking point and made a decision that I was done with all of that, and told God. I also had to make a break from complaining and instead give energy to the good things that God was doing.

That marked a turning point and things have been going better.

Of late, my prayer life has been guided more and more by the idea that doing arises out of being, that character is destiny, and that God is in the business of changing character.

So, rather than merely praying for my external circumstances, I pray for aspects of my character to change so that I can be more of who God has in mind, more my true self, and better able to handle those things that I truly hope for. I still pray God’s Word over my life and rely heavily on resources like scripture based prayer books (Christian Heal Your Character is awesome), but that is a starting point. It sets the tenor. After that, there is room for impromptu, informal prayer, but I feel that the structured time covers certain major bases, and takes off the pressure of what the existentialists would call “always becoming”.

Ok, time to wrap it up. If I had to narrow it down to bullet points it would be this.

• Character is destiny. Pray (and act as consistently as possible) for character transformation. Manage your “soil”. The person you were earlier in your life, your default settings, won’t be strong enough to support new things.

• We get what we have faith for and at the deepest heart level expect. Examine funky beliefs that get in the way and see if they’re true or not. Reason is your friend. So are your feelings. Use them both.

• God speaks to us through our heart. Guard it well. Take care of it. Don’t numb it out, pretend that it sucks, or that your heart’s desires are stupid/bad/of the world and all of that. Seriously. Take care of your heart or you might end up at home every Friday night listening to The Smiths.

• Company influences character, and hence, prayer, and hence your whole life. Don’t underestimate the power of association. Be deliberate about who you spend time with.

• Learn from people smarter than yourself. My top picks are C.S. Lewis and Tim Keller. If you’re smart, you’ll agree with me, nod your head knowingly and move on to the next point.

• Learn from people “out in the world”. I like, among others, Tim Ferriss, Dax Moy, and Nate Green. While not perfect, they often model many lessons that I need to keep learning. Like integrity, helping others through their work, generosity, work ethic, being comfortable enjoying the fruits of their labor, living an adventurous life, etc. We Christians can often be a very dour bunch and it’s not uncommon to relabel crappy situations as “being more than a conqueror”. There are times when our spirit and attitude trump circumstances. Then there are times we’re flat out scared of life and don’t think that God is, in word and deed, truly on our side. Know the difference.

• Often ask God and yourself if your prayer life is propping up the person you want to leave behind and if you’re using prayer to avoid real life.

• Faith, hope, love and all the other gifts of the spirit are just that. Gifts. They also seem analogous to muscles. Build your strength through your daily actions and choices. Don’t expect to “bench” a 300 pound challenge when your faith can only handle half of that. Also know that those gifts act in the real world and according to this wacky concept called Wisdom.

• Know that you don’t have to be perfect before you can be bold with God. Know that your prayers don’t have to be perfect. Jesus’ blood allows us to come near and pray boldly. He intercedes, so even though we don’t ask perfectly, he makes it perfect. Remember that because it takes all kinds of neurotic acrobatics out of the picture.

• Expect great things and act accordingly.