Prayer Isn't Only Words

It is never a light thing to press towards the innermost place of His sanctuary.

Put off thy shoes; It is holy ground.

~ Amy Carmichael

 

One of the most popular topics of discussion for teachers, authors, and theologians is prayer.  Even though everyone agrees that we should pray, we still have questions.  How does prayer work?  How do we pray?  Do our prayers really matter?  What should our prayers be composed of - praise, gratitude/thankfulness, requests for needs, intercession, begging/pleading/cutting deals, whining/complaining, questions asking why, last minute cries for help?  Do we even really need to ask since He already knows our needs?

 

Most people approach prayer as language/conversation, and it is.  However, as I grow older, my prayers seem to be starting in a different place than language.  I find that prayer is more of a positioning of myself, a placement of myself in the hands of the Maker of all.

 

Patricia Hampl uses this analogy.  Picture a stream flowing down a mountainside.  God is on top of the mountain; all of our concerns are downstream at the bottom of the mountain where all of the boulders and silt are. 

 

When I approach prayer as just language/conversation, I am starting downhill instead of starting where the stream begins.  If I approach God upstream at the top of the mountain, my perspective changes.  What I see first is Him and His love and mercy and grace and goodness to us all.  Up there I see who I really am and how little my concerns might be in light of Him who is Lord of all.  When I can remember to start upstream, I place my attention on the one who is Lord of all that is or isn't.  

 

I believe this is what the psalmist was encouraging us to do in Psalm 46: 8-11 [Message].

 

Attention all!

See the marvels of God!

Step out of the traffic!

Take a long, loving look at Me, your High God above everything.

 

We have been given an awesome invitation.  "Come.  Behold the works of God.  Be still, cease striving and know that I am God.  I will be exalted."

 

Our lives are so busy that sometimes this invitation gets lost on the buffet along with all of the other reminders of things to do.  Yet, this act of prayer is what gives me life and purpose and identity.  Therefore, I must carve out a place for this stillness.  I cannot wait until I have some free time.  This must be a priority, for this is nourishment for my soul without which I will just simply exist and not thrive or be alive.

 

Philip Yancey says that stillness comes before the "knowing."  In other words, I must be still, be quiet to see the mystery and be otherworldly.  I must be still to simply be.

 

This stillness gives me focus.  As I focus on Him and all that He is, "the things of earth grow strangely dim" and my problems don't seem as big as they once were.  Here my vision is the long view of things, eternity's view.

 

Isaiah 30:15 [ESV] 

Thus said the Lord God, the Holy One.

"In returning (in turning back to me) and rest (stop your own silly efforts)

you shall be saved.

In quietness (settling down) and confidence (trust, complete dependence upon)

shall be your strength.

 

The Latin word for be still is vacate.  So in essence, God is inviting us to take a vacation holiday from trying to be in control.  He is inviting us into a place where we can be vulnerable and honest, where He is who He is and we are who we are in all our shortcomings and needs and emptiness.  Not only does He give us a vacation, but He also gives us gifts.  He responds to us with mercy and grace and forgiveness and healing and love.

 

I'm not advocating giving up the language part of prayer; I'm just issuing an invitation to start in a different place and proceed to the language from there. 

 

Our prayers really do matter.  If they didn't, Jesus wouldn't have prayed as much as He did, and He wouldn't have told us to pray and to ask.  He prayed as if His prayers made a difference, and He is still interceding on our behalf today.  While He walked this earth and was vulnerable as we are and rejected and tested, He clung to prayer as if it were a lifeline.  Prayer is a lifeline, but there is more to it than just the words.  I and my father are one; Him in Me and I in Him.  Jesus did pray words, but He also positioned Himself rightly in the Father and invited us to live, move, and have our being in Him.