Are You Still There?

Many believers struggle with prayer. Some find praying to God daunting or even uncomfortable. At some time, almost everone finds prayer difficult. Prayer need not be difficult at all. Given the right approach (or approaches), it is NOT praying that can become difficult and even uncomfortable.

Praying to the Heavenly Father is part of an ever-developing relationship. The content and form of our conversations with family, friends, and acquaintances change as our relationships change, grow, and occasionally end. So can and should the form and content of prayer change as the circumstances of our life and our relationship with God change.

"Pray without ceasing" perplexed me for a long time. Unceasing prayer seemed not only inconvenient, but very nearly impossible. Unceasing prayer seemingly could even be dangerous, depending on whatever else you were supposed to be doing at the time--driving a car, balancing on a ladder, or performing delicate surgery. Then, in response to my prayer the answer appeared--these are exactly the times we should be in deep prayer.

Prayer need not be like ringing God up on the phone. You don't need to wait for the dial tone or enter the area code and number or wait for the phone to ring or for God to say "Hello" on the other end. If prayer is like talking to God on the phone, then we must remember that HE never hangs up, In fact, by my experience, God is always on the other end asking me, "Are you still there?"

We have an open line to God that allows us to carry on a never-ending conversation.

One’s prayer life can be a salad bar of prayer practices. In the morning after reading daily passages in the Scriptures, I pray to God that He make this day His own and allow me to honor Him and to glorify Him in thought, word, and by what I do in private and before others.

Before I begin my work day, I pray to God that my labors bring Him glory. While I can’t give God anything that He hasn’t already given me, I pray that in some small way that something I do will please Him.

As I prepare to work with a specific client, I pray that God will open an opportunity to honor Him with my client and to afford us the opportunity to talk about God’s love for each of us. Perhaps He will honor me with the opportunity to share the Good News of salvation by grace through faith in Christ.

During the day as I do my work, I silently bring my thoughts and concerns and hopes before God. If I see someone who looks to be suffering or hungry or cold, I lay my concern for them before God, especially if I am not able to engage them in conversation, give them a few dollars, or one of the blankets I carry in my car. More often than not, I find that there is a part of me that is praying to God as I do whatever I am doing. It’s a bit like having the radio playing in the background, except that it is a two-way radio.

There are times during the day when I need to engage in more direct and energetic prayer, often on my knees with folded hands as Luther would instruct me. Often this is intercessory prayer for specific individuals, groups, or issues. At other times, I pray “white-knuckled” prayer for others or myself in some dire need. It is at these times that I pray as I did as a child, talking to God whose image I pulled from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

At night after reading Scripture, I often pray following the “ACTS” principle (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication). I bring before God all of my “bookmarked” concerns, hopes, and thoughts of the day. Often I pray from my written prayer list. At other times, I am too tired to read through my continually growing prayer list and simply ask God’s blanket blessing on all in need, which is just about everyone. Often as is common with most pray-ers, I fall asleep with prayer on my lips. If I awake during the evening (something more common as I get older), I take the opportunity to keep the prayer with God going.

Prayer needn’t be difficult. It can become a habit as common and as comfortable as falling asleep or waking to morning coffee. In time prayer can become as vital and as needed as drinking water or even breathing. God is omnipresent. He is always listening and ready to listen. He is listening even now.

“Are you still there?”