I'll Pray For You
How many times have we said that...and not done a single bit of praying? We're really good at extending that proverbial thoughts and prayers hand, but we seem to fail to actually send out any sort of even half-assed prayer. Now, like many things I write here, I'm lecturing myself.
I swear that just about every post so far has had some level of things I need to change, I just happen to be able to make it universal enough for everyone to relate. Hashtag relateable amiright? Realistically most of my own shortcomings and struggles are things that probably 90% of other humans deal with to some degree. Just know that when I say we have something to fix in our lives, and I call us out on stuff, I'm talking to myself too.
With that out of the way, I can get back to the task at hand: PRAYER.
The fact that I just referred to prayer as a task says a lot about our general view on prayer, that it is indeed a task. I'll be the first to admit I have a fair bit of a struggle with my prayer life and maintaining any form of consistency. The most I prayed this week up to this point was to be rid of some pain, and some other self serving reasons. The thing is, we're REALLY good at praying when WE WANT something. Why doesn't that seem to translate well?
I don't have an exact answer, other than the human heart is selfish and deceptive. You know that saying "just follow your heart?" Yeah, that's the worst advice ever, the heart has NO idea what it wants. It's all about instant gratification, which in the end holds no long term benefit and can actually set us back.
If you haven't noticed I've been trailing off a tad here, normally when I write these I try to keep them as on the rails as possible. While my pieces aren't of an particular length, they tend to fill up a good 5-10 minute time frame, but aren't overly long so getting off the rails doesn't tend to be a noticeable thing. However up until this point in this particular piece I'm actually allowing myself to go on bunny trails.
There's a good reason for this; I'm willing to bet most of us find our minds wandering when we do attempt to spend time in prayer. Humans have amusingly short attention spans (as I learnt when I went to school to be a teacher), and so to sit in a quiet atmosphere, alone with our minds, we drift. In the same way I've sort of meandered through this post so far.
Why else do we struggle to pray? Recently we had to pray over those around us at a service, having spent some time praying in fire tunnels and other Pentecostal events, I've gotten more comfortable praying over others. However the person whom I prayed over really didn't say much (which wasn't a big deal to me), and yet they felt embarrassed.
To me it's not about the quantity of words in your prayer, but the quality. A lot of people struggle in their prayer life, because they don't know what to say. Don't sweat it my friends. In Corinthians Paul had been preaching using the vast expanses of his knowledge as he was a well educated man, and saw minimal results. He then returned and instead of attempting to move the masses with his own words, he spoke as an average person leaning on the word of God, this saw a huge change and thousands were saved.
The prayer of a well versed man isn't going to get more attention than the prayer of the child who simply calls out to God. Jesus instructed us to move with child like faith, and I don't know if you've noticed, but kids generally tend to like simplicity.
So, how do we pray better? Pray without distraction? Pray selflessly, and not selfishly?
Be intentional, set aside even 5 minutes. Sit in the the coat closet if you have to. Remove distractions and make a conscious effort to simply spend that time with God.
Keep it simple....silly. You don't have to have a script written up with a list of formalities to talk to God. We have a direct line to him 24/7, all we have to do is speak. Talk to Him like you do one of your friends, your brother, or your Dad.
Try this way.
"God, you are good. Thank you for all I have. Thank you that you have new mercies for me every day, and thank you that you are my strength in the time I am weak. Help me to focus myself on you, fix my gaze upon you Lord. Renew my heart, that I would be pure, and walk in your ways. Thank you that all things good come from you, that you guide our way and provide for your children. I'd like to pray for_____. Amen."
We should always be thankful for what we do have, before asking for other things. As a parent, I'm not going to give anything to my kid if he isn't grateful for what he already has. He obviously has no appreciation for it. God is our heavenly father, and He acts accordingly. That's not to say he isn't generous, because most parents like to give their kids stuff. There's an unconditional love that comes from parents, we want to give you the moon and the stars and the sun, because you mean so much to us. Now, you may not have had parents that showed love like that growing up, but know God loves you like that. He cares, He wants the best for you, and He cherishes you. There's a whole other piece that could be written about this, but I think I'll leave it here for now.
Be blessed friends.
I swear that just about every post so far has had some level of things I need to change, I just happen to be able to make it universal enough for everyone to relate. Hashtag relateable amiright? Realistically most of my own shortcomings and struggles are things that probably 90% of other humans deal with to some degree. Just know that when I say we have something to fix in our lives, and I call us out on stuff, I'm talking to myself too.
With that out of the way, I can get back to the task at hand: PRAYER.
The fact that I just referred to prayer as a task says a lot about our general view on prayer, that it is indeed a task. I'll be the first to admit I have a fair bit of a struggle with my prayer life and maintaining any form of consistency. The most I prayed this week up to this point was to be rid of some pain, and some other self serving reasons. The thing is, we're REALLY good at praying when WE WANT something. Why doesn't that seem to translate well?
I don't have an exact answer, other than the human heart is selfish and deceptive. You know that saying "just follow your heart?" Yeah, that's the worst advice ever, the heart has NO idea what it wants. It's all about instant gratification, which in the end holds no long term benefit and can actually set us back.
If you haven't noticed I've been trailing off a tad here, normally when I write these I try to keep them as on the rails as possible. While my pieces aren't of an particular length, they tend to fill up a good 5-10 minute time frame, but aren't overly long so getting off the rails doesn't tend to be a noticeable thing. However up until this point in this particular piece I'm actually allowing myself to go on bunny trails.
There's a good reason for this; I'm willing to bet most of us find our minds wandering when we do attempt to spend time in prayer. Humans have amusingly short attention spans (as I learnt when I went to school to be a teacher), and so to sit in a quiet atmosphere, alone with our minds, we drift. In the same way I've sort of meandered through this post so far.
Why else do we struggle to pray? Recently we had to pray over those around us at a service, having spent some time praying in fire tunnels and other Pentecostal events, I've gotten more comfortable praying over others. However the person whom I prayed over really didn't say much (which wasn't a big deal to me), and yet they felt embarrassed.
To me it's not about the quantity of words in your prayer, but the quality. A lot of people struggle in their prayer life, because they don't know what to say. Don't sweat it my friends. In Corinthians Paul had been preaching using the vast expanses of his knowledge as he was a well educated man, and saw minimal results. He then returned and instead of attempting to move the masses with his own words, he spoke as an average person leaning on the word of God, this saw a huge change and thousands were saved.
The prayer of a well versed man isn't going to get more attention than the prayer of the child who simply calls out to God. Jesus instructed us to move with child like faith, and I don't know if you've noticed, but kids generally tend to like simplicity.
So, how do we pray better? Pray without distraction? Pray selflessly, and not selfishly?
Be intentional, set aside even 5 minutes. Sit in the the coat closet if you have to. Remove distractions and make a conscious effort to simply spend that time with God.
Keep it simple....silly. You don't have to have a script written up with a list of formalities to talk to God. We have a direct line to him 24/7, all we have to do is speak. Talk to Him like you do one of your friends, your brother, or your Dad.
Try this way.
"God, you are good. Thank you for all I have. Thank you that you have new mercies for me every day, and thank you that you are my strength in the time I am weak. Help me to focus myself on you, fix my gaze upon you Lord. Renew my heart, that I would be pure, and walk in your ways. Thank you that all things good come from you, that you guide our way and provide for your children. I'd like to pray for_____. Amen."
We should always be thankful for what we do have, before asking for other things. As a parent, I'm not going to give anything to my kid if he isn't grateful for what he already has. He obviously has no appreciation for it. God is our heavenly father, and He acts accordingly. That's not to say he isn't generous, because most parents like to give their kids stuff. There's an unconditional love that comes from parents, we want to give you the moon and the stars and the sun, because you mean so much to us. Now, you may not have had parents that showed love like that growing up, but know God loves you like that. He cares, He wants the best for you, and He cherishes you. There's a whole other piece that could be written about this, but I think I'll leave it here for now.
Be blessed friends.
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