….The key to prayer is in being yourself and coming to Him with all of your heart. To be able to convey to the Lord your desires, whether in whispers or in your thoughts (with your whole heart talking to Him), then you’ve overcome. You have done a marvelous thing. You have prayed.
He loves it if we can spend a day with Him; just to tell the Lord what we desire in our lives, and treat Him like He is our friend. We don’t always have to be asking Him for things to do for us and pray for people that have needs. We don’t always have to be worrying about things to Him. If we take the time to just bring Him into our thoughts and into our daydreams, telling Him what we desire for the present and for our future, that is prayer too. Just to feel after Him and say, “I love You, Jesus. You are so good to me. You are so sweet to me. I love You so much” is something the Lord will appreciate very much. We don’t always have to make prayer requests to Him. We can also just love and appreciate Him and that constitutes as prayer as well. As a matter of fact from my experience this gives me more peace.
He hates it when we dread the thought of coming to Him because we have to pray so that God will bless us. Forget it. You’re not deceiving the Lord. He knows how you feel. He knows when you’re praying for the sake of having prayed so that He will bless you. You can’t con the Lord. He knows what you are doing. Just be honest with Him. If you want His blessing just say so. If you’re struggling with prayer and can’t stand it, tell Him. He will help you. He will show you what you need to do. I used to spend hours praying to Him. I used to go on and on about my problems, and then sister so and so’s problems, and brother so and so’s problems, and my heart was far away from Him. He couldn’t deal with me this way. When my heart is not tuned into Him but instead is caught up with my checklist of “have to get this prayer done,” and not feeling after Him, then it becomes just a one way relationship: me, doing all the talking. This is what He talked about in Isaiah that He disliked so much, He said, “Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” {Isaiah 29:14} If you are in a habit of doing this, stop as soon as you catch yourself, and begin to feel after Him with your heart and your soul and say, “Jesus, bring my heart near to You. Please help me to come to You with who I am and be myself with You. Please forgive me for wandering in my heart and in my mind away from You. I ask for Your grace and forgiveness, Lord Jesus. Amen.”
Learn to pray with your heart and not just with your mouth. You need to practice talking to the Lord with your heart and your mind present before Him. It is better to talk to Him with your heart and with your soul for ten minutes at a time, than drone on and on with your prayer requests and checklist for hours. I will tell you right now you will never learn who God is this way. You will miss out on the plans He has for you and the dreams He wants to give to you. You will not know the depth and the height of His love for you. You will just continue to know God as a stranger. You will not really know Him. And besides, that kind of prayer that wants to pray for the sake of praying is excruciatingly painful. You are making prayer hard for yourself. This is the kind of prayer He will respond to:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. {Psalm 51:17}
“Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.” {Psalm 15:1-2}
“And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” {Joel 2:13}
“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” {Jeremiah 29:13}
We cannot impress God with our long prayers. The sooner we are aware of that the better. Make prayer easier for yourself. Make it fun. Plan out what you want to talk to Him about before you begin. Take a piece of paper and write down what you want to talk to Him about. In my second hour of prayer I walk and talk with the Lord. I make it creative and fun for myself. I call it my “Five-Five-Prayer Hour”. I walk around inside my house for an hour and talk to the Lord. This is how it usually goes:
- Five things I love about God.
- Five things I am thankful about now.
- Five things I am thankful about He did in my past.
- Five things He did in the Bible I am thankful for.
- Five things I will thank Him for regarding my future.
Believe it or not this hour goes by fast for me and I get to exercise at the same time. I’ve even had the Lord help me with this prayer. One time I was blanking out and feeling lazy in my mind. I got one of these in my spirit, “Okay, Chinny, five things…five things…What are you thankful for about Me?” The Lord loves it when I’m loving Him. When you are determined to spend time with Him and desire Him in your life, He will help you. You just have to do it and tell Him so. He actually was the one who showed me to do this; to exercise and talk to Him at the same time.
I use my five-five prayer as my guide. But when there are things that are pressing me and I need to talk about an issue to Him, that will take precedence. The Lord prefers I come to Him always with my heart. So if there’s anything that bothers me I must talk to Him about it. If He’s dealing with me about a sin or something I have done that was not pleasing to Him, and I feel His Spirit dealing with me about it, I finish what I’m talking to Him about and will acknowledge Him. I will talk to Him about that sin or that issue He’s showing me and I will ask for His forgiveness. Sometimes this is quick and I can move on to my five-five guide. Sometimes it may take the rest of the hour. What matters is that I am always in tune in my spirit to His dealings with me that my heart is always available to Him when I am praying.
This process might be new to some people. Maybe you didn’t really know how to pray to Him like this and have no clue what I am talking about. Give yourself time. Practice makes perfect. Remember to always be honest with your talk and communion with Him. If you’re struggling with your prayer life and with knowing how to hear Him, let Him know and ask Him to help you to learn. If you are patient and diligent in coming to Him, He will show you.
When the Lord sees that you love coming to talk to Him this really makes Him happy. He has feelings you know. He knows when you like coming to Him versus doing it out of obligation. He loves it when we love coming to Him. The only way I have found again and again that makes prayer easy for me is when I just talk to Him as a friend would talk to a friend. I tell Him exactly what I’m feeling and what I’m going through. If I blank out and run out of thoughts to talk to Him about, I just focus on who He is and start appreciating Him. I start loving Him and start telling Him how wonderful He is. He loves it when I recall scenes in my life that He came and saved me. When I reminisce with Him what He has done for me in time past He loves it because I’m remembering His goodness. I am telling Him how much He means to me. God is just like one of us. He loves it when we appreciate Him and can’t live without Him. He loves it when we feel like He’s our superhero who comes to us again and again to save us whenever we’re in trouble. He loves it when we think great things of Him. There is nothing too small for Him either. For us to recognize a small thing He has done for us lets Him know that we are mindful of what He does for us. If we are thankful to Him for little things, He will start to bring in bigger things in our lives.
What impresses Him is a heartfelt prayer and a heart that seeks after Him. A heart that wants to know who He is. Don’t make prayer hard on yourself. Prayer is a beautiful and powerful connection that happens between a sinner and their Savior, an earthly child to their heavenly Father, a friend to a marvelous Friend – Jesus Christ. Prayer is the greatest thing we can ever accomplish for ourselves in this life. Prayer is eternal. Prayer is powerful. If talking to God is a chore and something you dread then you’re doing something wrong. Your mindset needs to change. Your approach to prayer needs to change. You need to talk to the Lord how you feel about it. Don’t worry, He already knows how you feel so don’t be afraid. What He wants is you to be honest with Him so He can help you and show you how to like it, and eventually look forward to doing it all the time.
Prayer is a privilege, not a ‘must do’ task we do in this life. Prayer is just a holier word for talking to God – your friend – someone who loves you like no one else can, and understands you through and through. Prayer is having an appointment with Someone who thinks and desires the very best for you. If you can imagine that He is always waiting for you and desires to know you and you to know Him, wouldn’t you want to make time for Him? For after all, He gave His life for you and loves you so much. Try Him out today, talk to Him. Try Him out tomorrow and the next day. Try Him out for the rest of your life; talk to Him. I promise you you will never be the same. Your life will change forever. It is a life that you will never, ever, regret. Please talk to Him.
“Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” {John 15:15}
Related Post: Part I – Don’t Make Prayer Hard On Yourself
#repost3/2017
