Prayer.
We learn about it in church. We practice with our friends. We intercede on the behalf of others. But what shapes our prayer life at its core?
We often pray without realizing just how profound this act of faith is. But the truth is, it is only since Christ came that God is present with us all the time, wherever we are, and we have the ability to have God’s ear anytime we want to talk.
God’s Presence is Everywhere
Scripture tells us that at the moment Christ died on the cross, the curtain of the temple was torn in two.[1] You see, the temple of the Old Testament was the holy house of God. His presence lived and dwelt inside the temple, in a room called the Holy of Holies.
Once a year, the high priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies for the Day of Atonement. He would offer sacrifices on behalf of the people of Israel for their forgiveness, and on this day the people would essentially get a clean start for the year ahead. At no other time were the people allowed to come so near to God’s presence.
When the veil tore that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple, it symbolized (and literally showed the people) that God was no longer going to be contained to a holy room. From now on out, God would indwell believers with the Holy Spirit, allowing their bodies to become, in essence, walking temples of God.
What an inspiration this is! That the Holy God of Israel now lives and dwells within us! We no longer have to wait for another to intercede on our behalf, or hold the weight of the guilt of our sins for months until the high priest brings them before the LORD and makes sacrifices for our forgiveness. We have been blessed through Christ’s sacrifice with the ability to draw close to God at any time.
What an honor.
Prayer is an Invitation.
Prayer is a conversation and communion with God. God has always been speaking and continues to speak today, so prayer is our response to God already approaching us. This is why the book of Hebrews says, ““Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” God invites us into the innermost places of God’s own life so that we can be known fully as we are and know God as our loving Father.
Prayer is our opportunity to hear God and share with God in an intimate relationship. We get to rest in God’s presence and grow in our relationship with God. There are many different ways and reasons to pray, but underneath it all, prayer is always about connecting deeper with our loving God.
We already have God’s attention.
So often we are tempted to pray as if we need to get God to listen to us. But the glorious truth is that God is already facing us, ready to listen and participate in our lives. We do not need to convince God to listen, or try to use a lot of holy language to grab God’s attention.
When Jesus was teaching his disciples about prayer, he said, “when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” God knows what we need and is there waiting for us to bring it to God.
In life, we get used to having to earn people’s attention. We have to do something worthy of praise, make a viral video, post a lot on social media so people will like our content, or even act out so that we can get negative attention. It’s easy to transfer this type of experience onto God and believe God will only pay attention to us if we have it all together or pray in the exact right way. The truth is however, God is, has, and always will be turned toward us already. We are invited to turn back toward God in the conversation of prayer. We already have God’s attention. The question is, does God have ours?
We can pray without words.
A common hurdle to having a life filled with prayer is not knowing what to say. Sometimes we have feelings too big to fit with words. Other times we simply do not have the answer to our particular request, so we don’t know how to pray for it.
The good news is that we are told in Romans 8:26 that, “we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Sometimes prayer means coming before God, wordless. We can feel lost, confused, doubtful, or even overjoyed and simply have no idea what to say. God still invites us into His presence. This might mean praying Psalms, sharing that we don’t know what to say, or simply sitting before God with an open heart so that the Holy Spirit in us can pray for us. Ultimately, God desires for us to commune with Him and created us so that our deepest desire is to be connected to Him.
Prayer is admitting that God is in control.
When Jesus teaches us to pray in Matthew, he gives us the Lord’s Prayer:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”[3]
By praying through the Lord’s Prayer, and stopping to think about each part as we pray it, we are led to pray in a way that focuses primarily on God and God’s work in the world. Prayer is not another way for us to control our lives or control God. God isn’t a vending machine where we will get what we want if we put in the correct change and press the right buttons. Rather, prayer is a surrender of everything. When we pray, we place our lives into God’s hands and admit that everything comes from Him.
Prayer helps us see the path of God and follow it.
When we bring everything we are and all of our experiences before God in prayer, it shapes us. It orients our lives toward God, the eternal Father who loves us and desires good things for us. We are told so frequently throughout our lives that we are in control and that we know what’s best. Experience tells us, however, that we frequently get it wrong and that we don’t control very much. When we come before God, share the deepest parts of who we are with God, and receive the deepest love back from God, we are shaped into the beings God created us to be. We gain new perspectives. We enter deeper into the truth of our lives and the world. We submit to God’s will. Prayer helps us see the path of God and follow it.
We are invited to bring everything to God in prayer!
Really? Everything?
So often we hear people pray, and even if they are hurting it sounds so pretty and polished that we can easily convince ourselves that God only wants to hear our pious, grateful thoughts.
But the truth is that God is willing to listen to the good, the bad, and the ugly. Just a quick look at the book of Psalms, or the prayers of other men and women throughout the Bible, reveals that people take everything to God. They bring their anger, doubts, confusion, grief, lament, pain, suffering, injustice, desires, hopes, and joys before the throne of the creator.
God is big enough to handle our biggest feelings, fears, and struggles. The question is, are we willing to be vulnerable enough?
Since God loves us and is turned toward us, God wants us to bring everything to Him. God isn’t there just in the good times, or in the extremely bad times. God is with us every day no matter what we are going through or where we are. God is a big God and can handle whatever we bring to Him. For God, the important point seems to be that we bring it to Him. Rather than trusting in ourselves or some other person, system, or false god that we created, God desires for us to remain in constant contact with Him. When we do this, God will love us back, reveal our true selves to us, comfort us, encourage us, discipline us, guide us, and ultimately save us.
God is big enough to handle our biggest feelings, fears, and struggles. The question is, are we willing to be vulnerable enough? Are we willing to trust God enough? For thousands of years, God has shown that He will never leave nor forsake us. Prayer is the invitation to experience this. Not just think about it, but actually live it.
So, brothers and sisters, may you turn your face to Jesus and bring your prayers before Him. May you accept the invitation to enter God’s presence in loving communion through prayer, bringing everything you have, everything you are, everything you are experiencing to God. And may you experience the trust joy of being known and loved by the one who made you to be known and loved.
[1]Matthew 27:51
[3]Matthew 6:9-13
