Developing a relationship with God is done in multiple ways. Yesterday we discussed the importance of the Bible in your life. It’s through the Bible that God has communicated to you and me. It’s through prayer (a conversation with God) that we are developed into individuals that converse with the Creator. How or even why do you have to teach someone to communicate? Doesn’t that come naturally? Well, many times we complicate the simple or simplify the complex. What you and I really need is the ability to openly dialogue with a friend, right? I guess what becomes so frustrating at times is that we feel like if we don’t ‘pray’ for a set period of time or recite the correct words that our prayers aren’t heard, aren’t meaningful, or just aren’t real.
For a moment let’s just consider prayer as a conversation with a close friend and a loving father. Ideally, both friend and father bring closeness, honesty, and security. With the comfort that comes from a relationship like that wouldn’t you be compelled to talk? to listen?
I’m really starting to see prayer as less of work and more of a conversation that is motivated from a heart of trust and love. This relationship I have with God has afforded me the multiplied opportunity to share everything…and yes, I mean everything. I’m able to cast aside any religious jargon and just talk. I’m also able to sit and listen. It’s refreshing to see prayer as something more than work, but as life and development. I’m not developing God during this time…he’s developing me. It’s painful at times, but it’s life-giving.
I don’t want to be reductionistic here, prayer is more than I can describe in a handful of sentences and paragraphs, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if we would approach the spiritual discipline of prayer with a heart energized by the Gospel, the amount of time and rhythm of our words would be inconsequential. God wants your heart and your ears, not your vocabulary.
Remember, faith energizes prayer (Matthew 17) and sin halts it (Psalm 66:18).
Take time today to read Luke 18:9-14 and see an example of an individual who forced prayer and of an individual who was motivated to pray from a heart stirred by the Gospel of God’s grace.
