"I don't know how to pray." I've heard so many people say it. I've even said it myself. Connecting with God seems to come so simply to others, but to some of us it is just beyond our reach. It's as if we don't know the right posture, the right words, the right timing, the right attitude, so our time with God suffers. Maybe it's true, we don't know how to pray!
Have we been taught wrongly? Possibly, but more than likely we have made the wrong assumptions (maybe our teachers had as well.). So we try to form our communication with God into someone elses framework, using someone elses words and wonder why we don't get answers or satisfaction. God-communication isn't some exact science with God expecting us to use proper english (or 17th Century King James English). It's way simpler than that.
"Here's what I want you to do: find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God and you will begin to sense his grace." (Matthew 6:6, The Message)
Toward the end of his sermon on the mount, Jesus began teaching about God's expectations of those trying to grow closer. He gave us a prayer format (the Lord's Prayer) and some simple guidelines: be secret (so that you don't make a big show of your disciplines. They aren't for others to see, they are only for you to grow closer to God.) and be honest (or real).
Even the Lord's Prayer we've misunderstood. It is not a prayer to be prayed, but a model we are to mimic. It's a template into which we put our own words, our own thoughts, our own heart. What God wants, expects, of us is simple, open our soul, not so that God can see the real us because God already knows, but open our soul to show our vulnerability, our need, our desire to understand our selves and God.
Lent is a time of self-examination, confession, penitence, repentance, which means we begin to look at ourselves for who we really are and then give that persons heart and soul over to God. That's being real. That is communicating with God on the level God desires. When we meet these expectations we'll more comletely "sense God's grace."
This Lent, be real with God, be more honest than ever, reveal your heart and open your soul and God will fill it with the most precious gift you can imagine, Himself.
Peace ><>
PC
1 comment:
Prayer at many times in my life has been a struggle. Sometimes I have felt that I haven't prayed to God in the right format, or I haven't used the right words and by worrying about those things I realized I spent more time trying to pray right to God and found my prayers became empty, not from my heart. Other times, including recently, I have felt that I have been so busy, so tired that I haven't been able to find the quiet spot with God..a moment with just He and I. But I have realized recently that what I need is a constant conversation with God though out my busy day. I am learning to just keep the lines of communication open with God through out my day....starting my day in prayer and just keeping going talking with God as the day goes. This brings me peace in my hurried, busy and sometimes tiring life. At the end of the day when I try to find that quiet time with God I end up falling asleep in God's arms and that is ok too. I am learning better to talk with God all day long. I need that and so does God.
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