Prayer fascinates me. For however long I'm willing to pray, I have the ear of the God of everything. For as long as I talk, he listens -- not tapping his foot and checking his watch, but listening intently. And when I learn to listen, he talks, too.
I don't mean that I hear the audible voice of God. I mean that when I learn to be silent in prayer, to simply be instead of simply begging, I realize I'm in the presence of God. It's humbling and awe-inspiring. It's praiseworthy.
That presences strengthens me, builds my faith, convicts me and sometimes breaks my heart.
Sometimes I realize I'm standing before the God of All ... and I have nothing to say. Needs I can't express, sins I can't confess. No excuse. No words. But:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
Romans 8:26
And prayer isn't just the formal, stopping everything and deciding, "All right. I'm going to pray now." That's part of it, part of the discipline of prayer. But simple determinance and method aren't the sum total.
God is listening always.
I tend to think we're praying nearly always, that to "pray without ceasing" is a statement of fact, not simply a command. God is attending to our unspoken, unformed, maybe even unknown prayers. He hears the things we don't know how to say, the things we don't know how to ask -- or the things we're afraid to, just as a father observes the needs of his child when she may not know them herself.
What is man that you take thought of him? And the son of man that you care for him?
O LORD, our lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8:4, 9
If prayer, then, is such a priviledge, why do so many men who are called upon to lead them in the assembly grumble as though they've just been given diaper pail duty?
Particularly from the standpoint of a woman in the c's of C, I can think of few things sadder in our worship services. Over the years, I've heard men turn down the opportunity or accept it grudgingly, leading a half-hearted prayer on behalf of us all.
I find myself praying for him, wondering if he is aware that he's not just addressing those of us seated in pews, but also the one who fills not only the auditorium, but all of creation.
If we all prayed with the awareness that God truly is listening -- even to the things we can't or don't say -- I have to think we'd hear fewer formulaic prayers, fewer bored tones. Maybe we'd hear his answers more clearly, too. Churches flounder at times for lack of direction.
God's listening. Are we?
2 comments:
I like your spin on the pray without ceasing comment.
I have spent a lot of time praying lately for different family members and their relationship with each other. I know people have prayed for me and I have experienced profound changes in my life.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I know the prayers of others have definitely shaped my life and I thank God for it. I know that prayers I've prayed haven't been useless either.
Sometimes I think it's just one of those things that we take for granted -- or that we do out of habit. One of the worst things in the Bible, to me, is when God tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people, because he isn't listening.
I think sometimes we forget who we're talking to.
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