Something happens when we engage in prayer. We are confessing that there is a force in the universe greater than us who guides the future, can change what is current, and who started it all. We call that force God. We call him “God” and not “Force” because he is personal. A force, say that of electricity, can do many things, but it cannot care how I feel.
In prayer I confess that I am merely a speck in the universe. I do so by praising God for who he is. In so doing, I recognize my place. But I also recognize that this God, though infinitely beyond me, actually has a concern about my well being. So he calls on me to ask for things, and to be persistent about it (Lk. 11:1-13; 18:1-8). I suppose the persistence proves that I really want what I am asking for and really believe that he is the one who can provide it.
In prayer I thank God that he isn’t simply powerful, but that he is personal. I thank him for my wife and children. I thank him for where I live, for the people who are my friends, for the opportunity to catch a trout. In fact, I sometimes sit there in disbelief at how well I actually have it. Unless I assume that life is just coincidence, I have to be thankful for the God would grant me such good things.
In prayer I suffer. Although I find that I have a very good, life, I too am sometimes afflicted. Granted, my afflictions have no comparison to those of so many others, but they are mine and I don’t like them. All that afflicts me I bring before the one I believe is capable of changing my suffering. I bring it before the one who I think is choosing to do nothing about it. In this way I am like those who have gone before me. Like Job or Elijah who wished God would get it over with and kill them. Like David, I sometimes feel forsaken, and I let the court of appeals know it (Ps. 22).
In prayer I confess to the one who cares about me. In confessing my sin I am saying what David confessed centuries earlier – “Against you, you only have I sinned.” (Ps. 51). I confess that I have violated the relationship with this God who cares so much for me. I confess that God is right and I am wrong. This is a little odd, given that he already knows. This is one of the ways in which prayer changes me, rather than changing God.
Prayer centers us. And the more we pray, the more we are centered. We notice that Jesus often withdrew to pray (Lk. 5:16) and even spent a whole night in prayer (Lk. 6:12). Jesus modeled for us how to be centered on God. There is always a connection between how we live and how we pray. Peter told us men that if we don’t treat our wives well, it will affect our prayers (1 Pet. 3:7). James tells us that the prayer of a righteous person is more effective (Jas 5:16). Hmmm.
However, prayer is difficult because we have such a hard time finding time to pray. This is interesting, given that we don’t seem to have trouble finding time to do other things that we want to do. And there we have it. We don’t pray because it is not important or because we don’t want to. Let’s just own that right now. I own it.
Prayer is like going to the gym. You know you should. You know it’s good for you. You’re going to get around to it. But somehow another week has gone by and you have failed to have any quality prayer time. This is because, like going to the gym, prayer takes discipline. We have to make ourselves do it whether we feel like it or not. Just like we need to eat right and exercise to be whole, we need to be consistent in prayer to be whole. We need to be consistent in centering ourselves on God, the powerful one who is personal. We need to practice something that we don’t necessarily feel like practicing: which is the definition of discipline.
Like exercise, we may not feel any change in ourselves after one period of prayer. But like exercise, prayer is not simply about the “High” of one experience (although this may happen), but about the culmination of all of the experiences. The more we consistently center our lives on God in prayer, the more we consistently center our lives on God in action.
So Nike’s admonition to athletes is helpful to us as well. “Just do it!”
1 Comment
June 16, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Thanks for the reminder and the encouragement.
Mike