The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on May 23, 2025 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
Most humans feel a natural nudge, or obligation, to pray. Some of this sense of obligation comes from “shoulds.” We should be grateful, so we say, “thanks.” We should be sorry, so we say, “forgive me.” We should look out for others, so we make petition and say, “please.” Prayer as obligation, in itself, is neither good nor bad, it is simply a natural and normal tendency, which many humans bring into prayer.
While this is true, it is also true that prayer is more than obligation. Prayer is more than our ritual of a few minutes every morning and evening. Prayer is more than a few words said before meals. Prayer is more than, though Inclusive of, the list of shoulds. Prayer as more than obligation potentially cleans us out, sheds the old and no longer necessary, and opens us up in transformation.
The formality and ritual and commitment of prayer as obligation help to shape and form us as humans—because of these aspects, we learn consistency and morality and dependability. Even so, prayer as more than obligation, as an ongoing lure that seeps into every moment of every day, becomes a formative force that shapes all of daily life, not just a few moments each day.
For example, the consistency of prayer in obligation can also taste like persistence. In prayer as more than obligation, we recognize a God who constantly pursues us.
Also, as a stable anchor that holds us down, the morality of prayer in obligation can also burst us open in transformation, to become better and brighter, even beyond law and regulation. prayer as more than obligation, we recognize a God who makes all things new through the fire of passion and compassion.
Finally, as a source for learning to recognize the patterns of trust and faith, dependability in prayer as obligation can ready us for the surprise of abundance, if we are willing to open up to it. In prayer as more than obligation, we come to see a God of Marvel and Mystery, who delights in our wonder at the works of healing and wholeness.
May we honor the fact of prayer as obligation, and may we also remember that prayer is more than obligation.
