That Place Called Prayer

I still fondly remember some of my friends from when I was in third and fourth grade. At that time the friendship was strong. Conversations took place at every opportunity. It has been several decades since I last saw those friends or even spoke with them. Those friendships are only memories now. Life has taught me that friendships without conversation tend to wither away. I have found that my relationship with God works very similarly. When I stop conversing with God in prayer, my relationship starts to wither and my faith in Him starts to shrink.

My last blog post discussed the fact that God has provided us with a map that will lead us into His shadow. The starting point for that map was to humble ourselves before God. As I examine the route, laid out in 2 Chronicles 7:14, the second point on the map is to pray. It is interesting to note that God does not ask for our prayers first. He asks for us to humble ourselves before we start talking. Maybe a proud heart would only want to tell God what to do. Perhaps it is that a proud heart is not willing to receive instruction, not even from God. When we are proud and pray, we ask God to fix our brother or sister before He works on us. Living in God’s shadow must be done on a personal basis. We cannot do it for others and others cannot do it on our behalf. When we are humble and we pray, we ask God to fix us. 

Usually we think of prayer as humans talking to God, but I believe that prayer is intended to be a conversation. A conversation has two participants. One talks the other listens and then the roles reverse. Sometimes we forget how conversations work when we go to prayer. When that happens we do all the talking, none of the listening and then run to the next thing on our schedule. Our prayers sound something like:

I must admit there have been multiple times in prayer that my prayers have sounded similar. In those times I have distinctly felt God was asking me to sit down, be quiet, and listen to Him. When I followed His instruction God showed me things I had been overlooking or perhaps even ignoring. Possibly, the fact that God had already been moving in the situation I was praying about, or the comfort that the entire situation is in God’s control, or even the advice to step back and let God handle the problem. I only learn these things by allowing prayer to be like a conversation where each party speaks and then listens to the other. I believe that the Bible is full of evidence that God wants conversations with the humans He created. This was certainly evidenced in both the stories and the admonitions in the Old Testament and the teaching of Jesus in the New Testament. God wants to talk with you, are you willing to listen to and talk with Him?

When I talk to people, sometimes they only half listen and are easily distracted by other things, or occasionally they just wait for me to stop talking so they can tell me the opinion they had arrived at before I started talking, or sometimes they hear only what they want to hear. Unfortunately, there are times I find myself listening to God the same way others listen to me, therefore I don’t hear what he is saying.

When I talk to God, He truly listens. He hears my words, knows my attitude, and understands my intent. He knows if I am angry, sad, or happy. He knows if I am looking for revenge or am pleading for grace for myself or someone else. He knows if I am trying to fillibuster or if I am trying to repent for inappropriate actions and thoughts.

When my children were little they would climb into my lap and talk. It was interesting to listen to their account of what was going on in their world. Sometimes their accounts matched the events I had witnessed. Other times their perspective made their account sound like an event I had not witnessed. Interestingly, when they felt they had been heard they would begin to relax and settle back against me; they were then ready to hear me, to allow me to deal with the problems they could not even comprehend, let alone deal with on their own. The injustices, the bullies, and the fears had all been turned over to their father and were now his to deal with. I think prayer is very much like this. The Almighty wants to hear our account from our perspective and then He wants us to settle into Him and relax as He gives us comfort, advice, instruction, or correction. He wants us to allow Him to guide us and to deal with the problems we face. As I read the Bible I find that God is a God of conversation and relationship who is interested in our well-being, not a God of checklists of do’s and don’ts.  He is a God who wants you so close to Him that you are constantly in His shadow.

Praying with a humble heart changes us and prepares us for the next step on the map, seeking God’s face.