[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during May 2026]
Sages, leave your contemplations [1]
During the current sermon series on Sunday mornings the congregation at HBC has been considering various types of prayer, including prayers of adoration, petition, intercession and, more recently, contemplation. The latter may be the remit of sages and hermits but, for us, pausing for contemplation brings its own challenges.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to quiet contemplation is the multitude of distractions around us. We are encouraged to ‘be still and know that I am God’ [2] but interruptions, preoccupations and digressions all conspire to carry our minds away from what should be the focus of our thoughts. David the psalmist recognised the difficulty:
Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught.
Psalm 55 v1-2 [NIVUK]
In terms of creating the right circumstances for contemplation, silence may well be golden but, as Helen’s experiment showed,[3] silence can be awkward. Unexpected silence can also be confusing, disturbing or even threatening, none of which is conducive to good communication.
Some 40 years ago, whilst surveying in a small provincial town in southeastern Saudi Arabia, I met an old Arab who asked what I was doing. I showed him my letter of authority which he then read aloud, tracing the words with his finger. He combined both hearing and seeing to help his understanding. Applying that approach in the context of contemplative prayer we may find that it helps our concentration to speak or read out loud our thoughts.
However, circumstances may not allow us to do this. Whilst any time is potentially prayer time, some opportunities are more appropriate than others. Jesus suggested one way to help our concentration:
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6 v6 [NIVUK]
Contemplative prayer should be a two-way conversation with God but we often feel that it does not meet its potential. Prayers of adoration have a single subject, despite the inadequacy of our praise, whilst prayers of petition or intercession have a natural beginning and end, corresponding to our list of requests. By contrast, prayers of contemplation have no such formality.
It was as a result of their contemplations that the Wise Men set out to find Jesus.[4] One New Testament writer recommended a similar way of avoiding mental vacuity when we attempt to pray:
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.
Hebrews 3 v1 [NIVUK]
Finally, if your mind still wanders do not consider this a failure. God may simply be using the opportunity of a quiet time to remind you of things that you may have forgotten!
Speak, Lord, in the stillness, while I wait on Thee;
Hushed my heart to listen in expectancy.
Emily Crawford (1902)
References:
[1] “Angels from the realms of glory”, James Montgomery, 1816
[2] Psalm 46:10
[3] Helen Sweet, Horley Baptist Church, 17/May/2026
[4] Matthew 2:2
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Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © Steve Humphreys