WHAT IS PRAYER TO ME?

What is prayer to me?  Three words come to mind when I think about prayer; relationship, communion, and communication.  It’s about being in a relationship with God, the creator of all things; it’s about spending time simply being in one another’s presence, communing with one another by sharing time and space; it’s about talking and listening to one another on a heart to heart level.  For me it is intimate and private.  It seems to be more a part of who I am than something that I do.  “Make my life a simple prayer unto you, O Lord; take my life it is yours.”

In Luke’s Gospel Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray.  Jesus gave them a pattern to follow.  After that there is a teaching about the importance of asking, seeking, and knocking.  Jesus assures them that if they ask they will receive.  This is a description of what is called intercessory prayer; asking for what is needed and receiving what is needed from a loving and generous Father God.

In Matthew’s Gospel this pattern of prayer is a part of the Sermon on the Mount and it comes as part of an admonition to “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them and not to be like the hypocrites” (Matthew 6:1).  They are to “go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret” (Matthew 6:6).  Prayer isn’t about just asking for your needs.  It’s more about acknowledging who God is, what God has on his heart, our daily simple need for bread, and being right with one another.

David is considered a man after God’s heart. (I Samuel 13:14) The psalms he wrote reveal a man whose life was a simple prayer unto God.  He was in a relationship with God, communed with God, and communicated with him at all times and about all things.  David lived in God’s Presence and he bore the fruit of that Presence, fruit that was pleasing to God.  I can imagine David lying there on the slope of a hill while his sheep are happily grazing.  I can se him just looking up into the heavens, watching the wind play with the clouds and the trees, just communing with God in his spirit.  Those heavens declare the glory and majesty of God and that fills David’s mind and soul.  The clouds, the trees, the birds are all the handiwork of God; all speak of the Creator, who he is and what he does.  David learns his lessons in the silence that surrounds him.  This is my desire.