 Prayer |
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| Prayer
isn’t natural
Getting some understanding about why praying is difficult
We will discover that no part of our life is left off the “list” of subjects that we can bring before God. |
Prayer
today
As a parent, I think I know my children fairly well. I was privileged to carry them in pregnancy and each showed a different personality even while in the womb. I have spent many hours with them as they have grown up over the years and that gives me my confidence in my knowledge of them. Every now and again my children surprise me. They say or do something that I was not expecting. They choose to do something that I didn’t think they would, or they step right up and carry out a task that I thought was beyond them. Even with these experiences I sometimes (wrongly) guess at what they think or feel without actually asking them. Some of us are a bit like that with God. Much of our relationship with Him is guessed at or second hand and we often don’t take the time to find out the truth. We believe we know how God will act and don’t give Him the chance to do otherwise, we think we know how God feels about something without asking. A relationship will not last long if the two parties never communicate. Prayer is predominantly about talking with God. If we talk we will develop a relationship with Him much better than if we don’t. Jeremy Jennings in his book The Church On It’s Knees says, “...we learn that it (prayer) is one of the main ways of developing the deep relationship with the Father for which we all long.” As faith filled people today we pray because we want a better relationship with God. That relationship begins before we become Christians as God Himself is involved in bringing us to Him. There is, however, still a lifetime to go in developing that alliance on our part. As we grow in our ability to pray, so we will discover that no part of our life is left off the “list” of subjects that we can bring before God. Everything that we think, say and do can be talked over with God. Prayer is so relevant to our twenty-first century life. |
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“I could never be good at praying” Some years ago I studied geography. A piece of knowledge about our world is that the Arctic is at the top of the squashed ball we live on and the Antarctic is at the bottom. (Let me just re read that and check I have got that the right way round otherwise I can’t use this as an illustration!) I managed to get myself into such a state that I just could not remember which was which. Its importance was manifest to me. This was one of the basics of the subject and I was being worse than stupid about it. This was supposed to be my top performing subject in the academic world. The more I tried to remember the more of a muddle I got in. (Eventually I cracked it and I can now remember it just fine.) Prayer is a bit like this experience for some people. They know they ought to pray as it is “one of the basics” of the Christian life but they get into such a state about it. They look at others and think that they can never be like them. One of the first things I can remember the Health Visitor telling me after my first child was born was never to compare my child to another as they all develop differently. We all know this makes sense but we do it anyway, and then worry. If you are a person who thinks they can’t pray very well here is the good news for you. Wherever you are in your life of prayer, God will meet with you right there. Please hear what I am saying correctly though—God will meet you right where you are now but he does want you to grow. Let’s look at the Bible for some encouragement. There are some verses which we can learn from to make us all better pray-ers. Everyone knows someone: the person who was born to talk. You see them coming at you along the high street and you look at your watch to see if you dare to stop or not. Surely these people, we think, must find praying easy. We have already said that prayer is what we call talking with God and these people are great talkers. Prayer is something more than just plain talking though. |
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Wherever you are in your life of prayer, God will meet with you right there. |
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If you have ever felt that prayer is hard work this is the reason why. We do not naturally live in a spiritual world and we have to make an effort to focus there. |
Prayer doesn’t come naturally
Prayer is a form of worship and worship is something that our spirit
does. In John chapter 4 Jesus meets and speaks with a woman from Samaria.
She is collecting water from a well and Jesus brings the conversation
around to spiritual things fairly swiftly. In verse 24 Jesus explains that
“God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in Spirit and truth.” What does this mean for us? It means that
worship is not something that our natural bodies do but something that we
choose for our spirit to do. Prayer will never be something natural for us
and therefore we will always have to choose to pray. If you have ever felt
that prayer is hard work this is the reason why. We do not naturally live
in a spiritual world and we have to make an effort to focus there. This is
not a negative thing. Effort has its rewards in a job well done and
meeting with God is certainly rewarding. So be encouraged. Finding praying
a little alien is no reason to lose heart. I say it again, be encouraged.
There is nothing about you that makes you less than the great pray-ers of
this or any other generation. Keep learning to pray! |
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Two ideas to help you grow in your prayer life
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