Prayer Is Beautiful When We Actually Pray

Yesterday I wrote about prayer in a blog post titled, “When Prayer Becomes An Uprising Instead of Remaining a Discipline.” I pointed out how I believe that prayer became, at some point, a “spiritual discipline” to be practiced instead of being a conversation with God – an opportunity to be honest and real before God as we celebrate the victories and confess the defeats; an opportunity to thank Jesus for his goodness and to cry out in our pain and need; to confess our sin and then to move into the beautiful invitation of repentance; to praise and give glory to God simply for who he is; to sit quietly with the Holy Spirit as he tells us how much we mean to him.

So this morning, I didn’t grab my journal or pen to write out my prayers like I usually do. I didn’t pray through a long list of requests but rather sat quietly before the Lord and waited. I looked at the prayer prompt of meekness for this morning (Ignite City Church is engaged in a 24-hour prayer ministry for the month of November). I sat in my chair and asked the Holy Spirit to make me meek. I thought through Matthew 11.28-30, where Jesus promises soul-filled rest for those who come to him and learn how to walk with him. And then I sat quietly and waited.

As I sat quietly people started coming to mind who I then began to pray for. Those times of bringing others before the throne of Jesus brought up things in my own spirit that I needed to confess – frustrations and bitterness that I’ve held on to for too long that I needed to repent from. And instead of pouring out lists of things to pray for, I poured out my heart. I was simply present with Jesus.

My prayer for you is that the next time you sit/stand/kneel before Jesus in prayer you do so from a place of patiently waiting. Waiting calms us and prepares us to be ministered to by God instead of rushing through the list of things that we want him to do. Waiting causes us to trust Jesus. Waiting makes us slow down and spend time with Jesus instead of fitting him in with all of the other tasks that we need to get to today. Waiting forces us to listen. And as we listen we can pray honestly and simply. We can share with God every thought that goes against God; we can share every affection that is directed toward the idols of our lives instead of set on Jesus; we can laugh about things that happened to us; we can cry out in our pains and sorrows; we can celebrate when we experience plenty and cry out when we are in need. In other words, we can simply come before Jesus and speak. And then wait again and listen as the Holy Spirit speaks to us. He has so much that he wants to share. O, how I pray that we recognize our need and his glory so that we’ll slow down and engage our whole selves in the beauty of prayer and communion with our Father.

“When you pray, try to let the prayer reach your heart; in other words, it is necessary that your heart should feel what you are talking about in your prayer, that it should wish for the blessing for which you are asking. Observe, during prayer, whether your heart is in accord with that which you are saying.” – St John of Kronstadt