There are immediate and long-term benefits of prayer. The immediate benefit comes from inviting God into your life; for as the ancient rabbis said, “God is wherever we let God in.” There is also the release of having put what is in your heart into words. And the more important the prayer, the more often your heart may bid you to pray it again, and again.
The subsequent benefits or fruit of prayer are essentially those which arise from the presence of the invited Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit, available in and through prayer: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Paul adds immediately, “There is no law against such things” (Gal 5:22-23). And like growing fruit in a garden, it takes time, good soil, sun, warmth, and rain. And different fruit have different patterns and periods of growth. And note: significant growth can happen during prayer
Pray This Way. With Dr. Hal Green
Humanity as a whole is in desperate need to rediscover and reconnect with God. Prayer offers the only means available to do so directly and satisfactorily. Dr. Hal Green has been teaching and conducting prayer retreats for three decades across the Midwest of the United States. His book, Pray Like This to Connect with God, is set to be published later this year. Like the book, the podcasts will describe the nature of prayer, along with examining various aspects of prayer and praying. These subjects will be followed by a multitude of prayer exercises in the areas of breath prayers, praying the scriptures (Lectio Divina), praying with the saints, meditative prayer, and contemplative prayer.
The goal of the podcasts will be to guide persons from ignorance of, to encounter with, God. Sadly, so few persons are aware of the astounding wealth of prayer knowledge and experience available to us across more than two millennia. The heart of the podcasts, then, will be to assist listeners to morph from prayer as a monologue to God, to prayer as a dialogue with God.