New Book By GU Prof Guides Readers to Richer Prayer Life

Published: April 13, 2021

John Newton reportedly claimed that prayer is so hard even the buzzing of a fly in the room is an overmatch for my strength.

If the author of Amazing Grace struggled mightily with divine communion, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Plenty, says Greenville University alumnus and adjunct professorTyler Boyer96, author ofThou My Best Thought: A Free Methodist Prayer Book(Ignite Press, 2019).

Boyers confidence that we can cultivate deeper prayer flows from his personal experiences and his observations about how people navigate modern life. Boyer, the senior pastor ofKnox Knolls Free Methodist Churchin Springfield, Illinois, believes that with a few thoughtful trade-offs, we can enrich our prayer lives. He encourages us to:

• Trade our restlessness for the calming daily rhythm of regular prayers, sometimes called praying the hours.
• Trade our impulses to follow the latest bright shiny attraction for frequent visits back to what we already know to be good, so we can know it deeply and live it well.
• Trade our fascination with the new and improved for rediscovering goodness that has endured and will continue to endure.

Though Boyer wroteThou My Best Thoughtprimarily to help his congregants benefit from deeper prayer, anyone can use it to bridge the gap between where Im at now in my prayer life and where I want to be.

Based on the Churchs lectionary, the litanies and lessons inThou My Best Thoughtecho the Word read in churches worldwide on Sunday morning. It guides users in the days that follow to prayerfully repeat related psalms, creeds, scripture, the Lords Prayer, and other collects. It inspires with historical readings from John Wesley as well as words from Free Methodist pastors and authors. It also incorporates space for personal prayer, reflection, and praying for others.

As a daily guide,Thou My Best Thoughtprovides welcome assistance to those who want to more fully benefit from Sundays teaching, and for those who feel their own words are simply not enough. Boyer hopes that users will rediscover treasures of the past and see that the old and enduring is sometimes more useful to the formation of our souls than the new and improved.

Boyer (below) traces inspiration for daily routines of prayer back to a trip he and college classmates took to the Benedictine monastery atSt. Meinrads Archabbey. There, he encountered stark differences between the monastic surrounds and the plain, private, and ordinary traditions upheld by his Mennonite upbringing.

I was raised to greet Catholicism with a great deal of skepticism, he recalls. He harbored certainties that Catholics werent Christian. He has since come to realize that sometimes, God tends to chuckle at our certainties.

At Meinradsagainst the elegant backdrop of vaulted ceilings, marble pillars, and polished floorsBoyer encountered exquisite serenity that helped him move beyond talking to God, to listening to God.

Entering a place that was so grand and ornate that it made you want to be quiet, was stunning, he says. Hearing the monks voices pray, praise, and chant left no doubt about their love for God and the scriptures.

I had trouble praying once a day, and the monks I encountered at Meinrad allowed prayer to interrupt their day at least four times a day, he recalls. It was an amazing experience that I will always cherish.

The monkspersons he previously fearedextended hospitality. [They] treated me, their guest, as though I was Jesus.

These discoveries turned his world upside down.

Today, Boyer assures those who feel their prayer lives are wanting to remember that the key to prayer is always to begin.

• If you miss a time, even if you miss several days, begin again.
• If you find yourself prayerless and feel embarrassed by your prayerlessness, begin again.
• If you tend to pray only for yourself and your needs, begin to pray for one other person.
• If you feel like you dont spend enough time in prayer, begin to pay attention to how God is present even in the shortest prayers.

Thou My Best Thoughtis available online throughthe Light & Life Bookstore.

Tyler Boyer holds a doctorate in spiritual formation from Lincoln Christian University. He serves as an adjunct professor in the Bastian School of Theology, Philosophy, and Ministry at Greenville University.

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