Prayer

What does your prayer time look like?  Do you have a special place or time of the day that you sit quietly with Jesus?  I wonder if we did a survey, posing those same questions, if we wouldn’t be surprised by the results.  I must admit that I have trouble with structured prayer.  I admire those of my friends that find this comes easily to them and are so committed to this special time with the One that matters most in our lives.  I find that prayer time differs for me like the changing of the seasons.  I ask myself, “Does this disappoint Jesus?”   My prayer time may occur at various points during the day.   I am filled most during this time right now, as I interpret His words on these pages.  Tears may fill my eyes, knowing this is our special time together, and knowing you will be reading His words along with me.  I also like prayer time when I lay my head down on my pillow at days’ end and remember to thank God for all my blessings in the day past.  I ask Him to forgive me for the times that I really messed up, promising that I will try to do better tomorrow.  But I remember a specific time, driving in my car alone, that occurred and has continued to affect me to this day.   Although it was a familiar song that started playing on the radio, it was like I never “heard” it before.  I don’t know if those were the words I needed to hear at that particular moment; or was it a new discovery for me of prayer time, in a place unplanned and unexpected?  So, my friend, don’t get caught up in trying so hard, like me, to fit into the familiar boxes of how, when and where to pray.  All God wants to know is that we love Him, no matter what the words.  It is how we speak to Him in the silence of our hearts.   God requires no fancy words spoken, as long as He knows they come from a place of love.  Then He smiles and touches our hearts back a hundred-fold!  I hope you’ll join me in prayer time and listen to the words of that song that changed my idea of prayer.  I can feel the Holy Spirit just watching Rod Stewart sing, “Have I Told You Lately that I Love You?”

“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is… Romans 8:26-27