Simple Prayer – Part 2
Is God really interested in the details of your life?
Verse of the Day
“Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.”
Today’s Devotional
Today we continue what we started yesterday, which is a look at Simple Prayer from Richard Foster’s book Prayer. We are going to pick up right where we left off about this basic and vital form of prayer.
- Very simply, we begin [praying] right where we are: in our families, on our jobs, with our neighbors and friends. To believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary junctures of daily life is the stuff of prayer. You see, the only place God can bless us is right where we are, because that is the only place we are!
- In the most natural and simple way possible we learn to pray our experiences by taking up the ordinary events of everyday life and giving them to God.
- [When dealing with hurts, failures, and losses,] we speak frankly and honestly with God about what is happening and ask him to help us see the hurt behind the emotion.
- We should feel perfectly free to complain to God, or argue with God, or yell at God. [For reference, see Jeremiah 20:7.]
- C.S. Lewis counsels us to “lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.”
- We must never believe the lie that the details of our lives are not the proper content of prayer.
- Do not worry about “proper” praying, just talk to God. Share your hurts, share your sorrows, share your joys – freely and openly. God listens in compassion and love. He delights in our presence.
- We will discover by praying that we learn to pray.
As he wraps up, Foster gives several “words of counsel” for our prayer journey.
- First, prayer is nothing more than an ongoing and growing love relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is especially true with Simple Prayer. Here no one has the advantage. The bruised and broken enter Simple Prayer as freely as do the healthy and wealthy.
- Second, we must never be discouraged by our lack of prayer. Even in our prayerlessness we can hunger for God. If so, the hunger is itself prayer. In time the desire will lead to practice, and practice will increase the desire. When we cannot pray, we let God be our prayer. Nor should we be frightened by the hardness of our heart: prayer will soften it. We give even our lack of prayer to God.
- Third, we must let go of trying too hard to pray. There is a principle of progression in the spiritual life. If prayer is not a fixed habit for you, single out a few moments [for prayer] and put all your energy into them.
- Fourth, we should learn to pray even while we are dwelling on evil. Perhaps we are waging an interior battle over anger, or lust, or pride, or greed, or ambition. We need not isolate these things from prayer. Instead we talk to God about what is going on inside that we know displeases him. We lift even our disobedience into the arms of the Father, he is strong enough to carry the weight. Sin, to be sure, separates us from God, but trying to hide our sin separates us all the more.
- Fifth, it is wise to strive for uneventful prayer experiences. Divine revelations and ecstasies can overwhelm us and distract us from the real work of prayer.
- Finally, we see that in the beginning we are indeed the subject and center of our prayers. But in God’s time and in God’s way a revolution takes place in our heart. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, there is a shift in our center of gravity. We pass from thinking of God as part of our life to the realization that we are part of His life.
Friends, this is really good news. We simply begin talking to God about our everyday lives, and He lovingly and gently draws up deeper and closer to Him as we go. In the process, He does the work of grace and transforms us as we simply talk to Him.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How have you believed the lie that the details of your life are not proper content for prayer?
How has God shown you that He is interested in the details of your life?
What hurts, failures, or losses do you need to honestly and openly talk to God about?
Is there any part of your life that you are hesitant to talk to God about?
Are you hopeful that God can, in fact, change your heart, your thinking, and your life through the habit of prayer? Why or why not?
How can you begin a habit of Simple Prayer today?