Many of us have unhelpful views of what prayer is. One of these views is that prayer is reserved for the spiritual elite. In other words, prayer is for clergy, elders, maybe even very committed church members, but not really for me. This mindset is most revealed when people feel compelled to ask pastors to pray for them. There’s nothing wrong with this (I’ve done this several times), as long as you remember that no person, including your pastor, has more access to God than you do. Scripture says that every believer is a priest and a part of a chosen people (1 Peter 2:9). In other words, if you believe in Jesus you have all you need in order to access God directly—in fact, He encourages each one of us to approach Him with confidence (Hebrews 4:16).

Another view is that prayer is the means through which we get what we want from a begrudging Father. Put another way, prayer is the way we convince God to give us what He doesn’t want to give us because He’s really quite stingy. Though not directly stated this way, this mindset is seen whenever we place an undue emphasis on a certain level of intensity or specific length of time in prayer needed in order to compel God to respond to us. In this line of thinking, prayer is transactional, in that our effort somehow earns us God’s response and favor. I’m not saying that prayer doesn’t sometimes feel like labor or that it doesn’t require discipline—it definitely feels like training at times. What I’m saying is that this transactional view of prayer sounds very unlike the picture of a generous Father that Jesus speaks of (Matthew 7:9-11).

If prayer is not either of these things, then what is prayer?

Journey of Relationship

Prayer is the practical way in which we invite God to journey with us.

From the Old Testament (Exodus 25:8) to the New Testament (John 1:14), the Bible reveals the story of a God who gets “messy” with his people—who desires to live among them despite their dysfunction. The purpose of prayer is to connect with this Person we, in the English language, refer to as “God.” The purpose of prayer is relationship.*

Through prayer we invite God into the good, bad, and ugly of our lives. We open up the doors of the messy homes that we call our lives, and say, “Jesus, do you really want to move in?”, only to find that He has a moving truck parked out front—He’s been patiently waiting for us to open the door and invite him in. We do this by praying not just from our intellects, going through a list of requests, but by praying from our hearts—telling Him what’s really going on, how we really feel, and in light of that asking Him for what we need. We surrender our whole selves to Him, asking Him to influence every area of our lives. We have a conversation, stopping and listening to what He has to say through His word (the Bible), reflecting on what we read.

Through this process (and it really is a process, by the way), I’ve found that my picture of God has shifted from Him being the abstract Ruler of the World, or Creator of the Universe, or even Savior of my soul, to being my Friend. He’s present with me—in the pain, the joy, and everything in between.

I want to get to know the heart of this beautiful God. What about you?

HOW

One morning or afternoon this week, simply talk to God . . . except, don’t say any “thank you’s” or make any requests (no “T’s & G’s,” aka “thank you” and “give me”). In other words, simply share how you are really feeling on that particular day (“Today I feel ___,” “I’m worried about ___” etc). You can do this through writing (my personal favorite), taking a walk, or some other way that makes sense for you. When you’re done, take a couple minutes to be silent, knowing that God has heard you and is with you no matter what you’re going through.**
Read a Psalm, or a portion of a Psalm, every morning. Most Psalms are prayers, and they’re a great way to kickstart your own conversations with God.

Hope this is helpful to you. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to email me at ianreyes567@gmail.com.

On the journey,

-Ian

References

*I got this conception of prayer from Dr. Roy Gaton

**This prayer practice was introduced to me by Dr. Allan Walshe