In prayer we can give thanks, ask for help, or just simply talk with God. Prayer is simply just sharing what you think and feel and care about and doing that with God just as we talk to our closest relative or friend. Our God is a God who sees our lives as it unfolds. He sees our emotions and our joy and our hopes and heartbreaks. He is always there for us even if we can’t “feel” him. Faith is not a feeling. It’s a choice to believe and know. We can literally come to God with anything and talk to him about everything.
Prayer is a turning toward God and is at the core of our relationship with him. How can a relationship survive if there is no communication. Now it often feels like God is so silent, but he works in so many mysterious ways. He doesn’t always speak as clearly and as quickly as we’d like, but God is not in a hurry and we have to position ourselves to be in a place to listen.
There can be so much pressure or legalistic thinking about prayer and I really want to release people from that pressure. There is no perfect way to pray. There are no perfect or “proper” words to use or any preferred language. If you’re sick and your voice sounds terrible you can pray out loud or inwardly, no matter. If you don’t know a lot about scripture or all the Christian words to use, that’s ok. If you really don’t know what all to say or how to say it that’s ok too.
1. Intention
We have to approach God with clear intention. We have to think out and be clear about what we want to communicate with him. Sounds silly, but it’s about actually putting our hearts and minds into our prayer life. We have to make up our minds and actually pray and acknowledge it’s importance. It’s kind of like how people say, “oh yeah, I need to go to the gym.” But they never do. “Oh yeah, I need to pray more.” It can be as simple as saying grace before you eat or a prayer before you go to bed.
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. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Matthew 6:6-7 NIV
Now I am not advocating for quantity over quality. It’s really the heartfelt quality of our prayer that matters more than frequency. Being intentional results in more meaningful prayer. It also helps us to remember what we want to pray about and we will be more aware of how God answers us. It’s important we pray from what’s in our hearts, even about the not so good stuff.
2. Honesty
Tell God how you really feel…
There is this fear that if we really share the truth about ourselves and how we really feel that people will be appalled or overwhelmed and will walk away from us. People definitely do that at times, but God does not do that. People can reject us for the truth, but God will never turn us away, even after seeing the very worst side of us. God is certainly not afraid of our anger, confusion, disappointment or our tears or our fears or our sin. He already knows everything, but he is waiting on us to come to him about it. The enemy wants us to be silent and hide in the dark away from God.
Jesus himself bore our sin on his body and he did not abandon us or turn away or reject us. Instead he laid his life down to save us. God doesn’t brush past our sin, but he forgives us of it all when we come to him. Every time we confess wholeheartedly he forgives us. Every. Time. We can confess anything to God. There is nothing he doesn’t know and nothing he hasn’t seen many many times before. “…there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV). We do not have to be afraid of our Heavenly Father when we come to confess because out of his great love for us we have Christ. Being fully transparent with God can be intimidating, but he is so kind and loving and gentle and patient with us.
If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9 CSB
We can share our honest emotions with God: laughter, tears, joy, sorrow, anger, jealousy, etc. We can even talk to God about how we get angry and upset with him. He can already see our anger so why should we hide it. We need to show the truth of our emotions. “God I don’t know why you have left me here.” “God how can you hurt me like this.” I think of Jesus’ cry on the cross. He was referencing David’s beginning words in Psalm 22.
At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Matthew 27:46 NLT
3. Stillness
Stillness is so important in prayer. Our environment has a big impact on our ability to focus in prayer. Being still is easier to do when it’s quieter with less distractions. Sometimes we need to step away or stop what we are doing to pray or even schedule time to pray. Jesus actually left his disciples to go away and pray outdoors (Luke 5:16).
Our culture today glorifies busyness as a form of status and identity. It’s good to work hard, but we also need time to rest from the work of our own hands (sabbath). Even if you can’t seem to find the time or quiet, just think about the Lord as you lay down to sleep and pray to him. Also don’t be so legalistic about your prayers. If you fall asleep without ending your prayer formally, it will still be okay. It just shows you felt comfortable and relaxed in your prayer and fell asleep. What parent would be upset with their child falling asleep in their arms.
4. Trust
Communicating with God involves trusting him to hear you and to consider your words. I often quote some of King David’s words in the Psalms after I pray to say to myself. Something as simple as reminding myself that the Lord did hear my prayer. Doubt can creep in so easily and make we wonder if I really prayed well or if God was really listening.
The LORD has heard my plea for help; the LORD accepts my prayer. Psalms 6:9 CSB
God is after our hearts (Proverbs 23:26) and Jesus goes out and pursues us to bring us back to and closer to our Father (Luke 15). God was active in our lives before we knew him. The weight of staying connected to God isn’t all on us. God reconciled us to himself. By believing in his son we are his. We just have to meet him here. God is always available to us in prayer. We just have to remember him.
The way the sky looks when the sun sets reminds me of the beauty of God’s work. I love the sun and I know that God knows that about me. So whenever it’s a sunny day I just smile and thank him and think of him. He knows me. It’s really like we have to be a kid again before adulthood and life made us so cynical and guarded. There is nothing God cannot do. There is no wound he can’t heal. No broken heart he can’t mend. No past that he can’t redeem in full. No trauma that can’t be absolutely crushed by the fierce and all-powerful love God has for us. Nothing broken can’t be renewed to the fullest. God is in the business of restoration.
God knows us better than a life long friend. He is the very definition of what a father is. A father is protective, loving, patient and compassionate who teaches and cares for his child and that is who God is to us. The more we hand over to God the more we just see how much we can trust God with everything from our biggest fears, pains, dreams, hopes, and mistakes.
God is worthy of our time, our trust, our confidence, our considerations, our life, our past, our future, our present. There are no dumb or silly prayers and none are said in vain. God sees it all regardless, but he is patiently waiting and wanting us to talk to him and to bring everything to him. And there is no need to be afraid of talking to him for fear of judgement or ridicule. In prayer it’s just Him and us.
Maria.
This is an Awesome post during Father’s Day!
Thank you!