3 thoughts on prayer

 ‘Go out deeper,’ he said. ‘Go further out into the waters of faith.’

The words of the preacher were a call to me that night long ago and a restlessness of spirit was stirred up. As I put my foot forward beyond the shallows, I could feel the tug of the ocean tide. The vast, immeasurable ocean that is God’s love draws us and I think restlessness is sometimes a gift of the Spirit.

He has kindled a fresh sense of unrest, even dissatisfaction particularly with prayer in more recent times.

We describe it in simple terms to the kids at church. It’s like a telephone line. It’s just talking to God. An uncomplicated, easy thing to do. It is, but…

I could be overthinking the metaphor here but you only need a phone to speak to someone who is at a distance from you and what do we tell the kids when all they hear is static? When there doesn’t seem to be an answer?

What do we tell them when they ask, what’s the point of prayer if you don’t feel God is listening or that he’s not going to do anything about the stuff you’re talking to him about?  

I have a kid who asks this all the time and usually I find it difficult to give him a satisfactory reply. The best I can do is tell him what the Bible says and tell him stories of my own experience of prayer. After all, if I’m honest, I often feel as if I’m simply talking to myself without having much reassurance that I’m actually praying. Other times, as I talk and listen, I’m as sure of God being right next to me as close as the skin covering my bones. I know he’s directing my thoughts and feelings as surely as the grass bends with the direction of the wind that blows across the fields.

However, it’s not something you can convince a person of with just the force of your own words. The wind blows where and when it wants to blow. They have to have their own personal encounter with God in prayer.

I have a whole bookshelf holding the weight of nothing but prayer! Here son, read this lot and then you’ll understand all there is to know about the why and the how of prayer.

It’s certainly not got anything to do with an ability to read! If it’s all so simple, why the need for so many books anyway? Why have so many people, devoted so much time to writing about prayer?

My restlessness provokes question after question in an attempt to broaden my perspective on prayer.

What are the benefits of liturgy and common prayer?

Why do people use prayer beads and rosaries?

Why do Jews use a prayer shawl?

How do you pray with the Psalms? What is the Ignatian prayer of the Examen?  

I’ve prayed using candles. I have a prayer app on my phone.

I’ve been to prayer meetings, prayer rooms, and services of prayer ministry.

I pray alone and sometimes with others.

And after all that, when prayer is examined, researched and considered, what can I say about prayer?

I can say it remains a deep, deep mystery even though it seems to be stitched into the very fabric of life in all sorts of different ways.

I can pray on the basis of faith, acknowledging the strength of the tide and the undercurrent that wants to pull me far out onto the limitless spiritual expanse that is beyond my understanding.

I can pray on the basis of the present. Take a breath and think only of today. Today, the sun shines brightly and the warmth of those rays on my face loosens the tight, tense muscles of my jaw. I begin to enjoy the light of God’s countenance shining upon me and the words thank you are easy, natural and heart felt.

Today, I read again the words ‘steadfast love’ in a Psalm and know that He is reminding me of his love because even though he reminded me yesterday, I’ve forgotten already. Deep breath, exhale and thank you Lord for both your love and your word.

Today might mean having such a sadness of heart that prayer is simply sitting in silence in a quiet place and holding all that sadness out in my hands to God.

Today, these are the people who are uppermost in my mind Lord and who I am pushing under your protective wing in prayer.  

I can pray when I am honest about myself. These are the questions I am asking today Lord. This is how I am feeling. These are my struggles and failures.

Ask, search and reach out of your needy heart towards Jesus, in whatever tangible way you find helpful but the books, the beads, the shawls and everything else fade into insignificance, when they’ve done their job of helping to lift our eyes to God. The reason we struggle with prayer is because we know that we need to relate to him. We are restless to know him better, to experience more of life to the full as he promised. The only means we have of doing that is through our elder brother Jesus, flinging ourselves into his arms and depending on the mercy and grace of God.

Prayer is the act of flinging ourselves with abandon into the deeper waters.

‘Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need; prayer is the beginning of that communion…a coming-to-one with him…the sole end of existence itself.’

George MacDonald

Have faith.

Be present.

Be yourself.