Treasury of Daily Prayer

Essentially it’s a book that has daily readings from the bible and orders of prayer, and the entire Psalter (all the Psalms). Every day has an Old and New Testament reading, a psalm (or portion of one), and some general guides for prayer. I like it because everything is contained in one book, I don’t have to switch between my bible, a format, and a devotional (although I do enjoy using Eckardt’s Meditations for the Daily Office in conjunction with it sometimes). It’s all in one place. I’ve never been one to really get into any kind of formal prayer material, preferring spontaneous prayer and scripture over any prescribed format. But the bottom line is that when left to my own devices, I simply don’t pray or read the bible that often. If I do, I’ll most likely read a couple of bible verses then pray a 4-5 minute half-hearted prayer, during which I’ll succumb to my short attention span and begin thinking of something entirely non-related.

Understand that I’m not saying there is anything wrong with short prayers or scripture readings. I’m simply saying that I often resort to this approach out of laziness and a failure to prioritize God and His Word in my life. Perhaps you can relate. I’m not trying to push the Treasury of Daily Prayer or anything, I am just stating that it is really helping me get into the Word and prayer more (plus it was a fun project making my own ribbon bookmark for it).

What helps you pray? How do you make His Word a priority in your daily life?

Related posts:

1. Regular Prayer
2. I talk more than I pray
3. Home-Made Ribbon Bookmark

This has come up before in a past post entitled The Great “Tensions” of our Faith. It got resurrected recently by a post at internetmonk.com entitled Spiritual Depression and the Search For the One True Church (I’d like to hear the opinion of the room.). iMonk writes about the depression which stems from trying to find theological truth. A commenter writes:

My “spiritual depression” is caused by the continual dueling (in my mind) of the various theologies within Christianity: Reformed, Wesleyan, Lutheran, Catholic, Orthodox, and on and on.

How can I know which, if any, are truly true? All have scads of brilliant and holy adherents. Is it all subjective? Just close my eyes and pin the tail on the donkey? As Lewis said, we cannot live in the hallway (mere Christianity.) We must choose a room.

To continue to study systematic theologies only seems to drive me further into “depression.” Yet it is like an unbreakable addiction.

iMonk was very interested in this and posed a series of questions for his readers. I commented in reply to it, and I decided to share my thoughts here. The following is what I wrote, and then I added some questions I’d like you to answer:

I don’t mean to sound too postmodern, but perhaps the reason it is so hard to grasp theology (and thus so easy to disagree with others’ conclusions) is because we are dealing with an infinite being, not a finite part of creation which we can dissect, study, and comprehend. Take the doctrine of the Trinity for example. No denomination is silly enough to presume to understand the mystery of tri-unity, yet we all believe it. Such theological thought has driven a friend of mine to say that “The Trinity is not a doctrine I believe, it’s a relationship I embrace.”

In reality, theology necessitates truths in tension. For instance, Jesus was fully man and yet fully God. Christians are sinners and yet also saints. God is absolutely sovereign yet man has free will. Jesus said “This is my body and blood,” yet it still looks and tastes like bread and wine. Grace is free, yet it is not cheap and it will cost you everything. The Law demands absolute perfection as the standard of holiness, and the Gospel promises imputed righteousness to all who believe upon Jesus. It’s no wonder theologians have drawn differing lines in the sand. I think doctrinal differences occur when we attempt to rationalize these apparent “truths in tension.”

What do you think? Do you think most doctrinal disagreements occur when we attempt to rationalize these “truths in tension” about our infinite and awesome God? What are other sources of theological contention? A huge movement is underway labeling itself as post-denominational, what does that word mean to you?

Related posts:

1. The Great "Tensions" of our Faith
2. Soundbite on Decisional Theology
3. Objective and Subjective Justification