Prayer

“And everything you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” Matthew 21:22

Prayer – Do you want to know what the full range of prayer sounds like; what it feels like?  Then begin to pray the psalms.  David was a man of prayer.  But his prayers covered the range of emotions, the landscape of concerns, the topography of human expression.  David was free before God.  Ritual and rules did not confine his expression.  He shouts and complains.  He rejoices and sings.  He is depressed and distraught.  He is thankful and humbled.  David was an open book before the Father.  And God said, “This is a man after my own heart.”

Prayer is the key that unlocks our religious boxed-in formalities.  Prayer positions us before the Almighty, El Shaddai, for whom nothing is too difficult.  We are free to express everything we feel.  God is not shy or offended.  He has given us freedom to speak our minds and our hearts.  And when we enter into this kind of prayer, we discover something incredibly important.  Prayer is not for God.  It is for us.

Prayer is not the correct spiritual mechanism prescribed by God to get Him to change His mind or pay attention to my needs.  God already knows all that I need.  I don’t pray in order to convince God to do something for me or for anyone else.  “The purposes of God cannot be thwarted”, said Job.  God is the sovereign ruler of all.  He does not need my counsel or my appeasement in order to act.  But He desires me to communicate with Him.  He wants to hear what I have to say, not because it is news to Him but because He knows that when I communicate in prayer, I am seeking Him.  And that pleases God very much.

My father died some years ago.  Before he died, we talked often by phone.  He never tired of hearing my voice.  It didn’t matter what I was talking about.  He just wanted to hear me simply because he was my father.  He wanted me to talk, even if he only listened.  It was just a matter of communicating his love.

My prayers are nothing more or less than communicating love with my Father in heaven.  He wants to listen.  He wants me to pour out my heart.  And in the process, He knows I will find out something very important.  He loves me.