How To Pray

So much has been written about prayer and how to go about it.  Why on Earth would anyone, especially me, think for a minute they could add much wisdom or insight to the already existent body of knowledge?  Actually, I don't know that what I'm about to share will be new-found information for you or anyone else reading this post.  For me, though, the prayer thing is becoming crystal clear with simple discoveries I've made over the last six months.

During the last 5 years just about every morning I have been spending time alone with God praying.  Early on it was rough going.  My mind would wonder.  I would occasionally doze off.  Distractions seemed to bombard me from everywhere.  But I was determined to push through all of that and persist.  The way I thought then, and still do today, is that if it was essential for Jesus, it's even more critical for me.  So I'd best get on with it!

Friends had given me several written prayers.  One was even recorded on a CD.  The CD thing never really worked for me.  And it took some time for me to get past my built-in prejudices and resistance to any form of wrote prayer.  Diligently, I'd speak the words of these prayers each day and work hard at doing so from my heart with real purpose and intent.  Eventually, it became easier and served more as a launching point into other conversations I'd have with my Creator.

But after some years of this routine, I began to feel like I'd evolved this practice more into a formula.  My daily ritual came to seem somewhat more of a practice that if I performed just right and said things just so, then I'd control my world and keep all the bad stuff pushed back.

Since the beginning of the year, I've been reading and re-reading the gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  And one day I was reading from The Message version starting at Luke 11:2 where Jesus is talking:

So, he said, "When you pray, say,

Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil"

Immediately following this, he tells a story about persistence.  And he even tells us that if we ask, seek, and knock that we'll get, find, and doors will open.  Pretty simple!  Pretty straight forward!

Then he gets even more direct in telling us how to pray:

Don't bargain with God.  Be direct.  Ask for what you need.  This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in.

I love the way The Message puts this in more current and understandable verbiage.  The wrote prayer often referred to as the Lord's Prayer had over time become meaningless to me.  But after much perseverance and asking, Jesus took me back into those simple words and outlined what He desires in our relationship.

He wants clear and direct communication.  He wants us to ask and keep on asking...to run to Him and keep running to Him.  And He's given us the outline in words of what really matters for us...the daily prayer He knows is best for us.