What is it about prayer?

I was sitting in a meeting and the subject was prayer within the context of small cell groups. Someone commented that if the prayers are not being answered then people may get discouraged and lose interest altogether in attending the prayer cells.

That could be a problem.

Others began to respond to this person’s comment, as well they should. It is quite important to have a right understanding about prayer. 

Could it be that we see prayer from a needs-based perspective when it is much, much more?  Shouldn’t prayer also be love-based, an expression of our desire and love for God? Prayer that has depth and spiritual insights is about communing with God, thanking Him, praising Him, loving Him, listening to Him, pleading, asking, desiring “more” while we wade into the Presence of Divine power.

Meaningful prayer is life-giving to the soul.

It is interesting.  I discovered the joy of praying many years ago. It was during a difficult season. My life had been turned upside down. There were so many problems that I was drowning in them. Emotional wounds were causing a deep cut on my heart.

But I didn’t dodge or run. Honestly, I looked to God for answers.

My human relations could not give me what I needed. The need was too great. Routine praying, the way I had been praying for years, no longer interested me.  I began praying with an air of expectation, seeking God for answers, opening my heart up to greater understanding. I knocked on Heaven’s door with all my might. My open way of praying went in this new direction because my heart longed for greater intimacy with God, and I needed Him so much. Praying that seeks God to find Him means we must listen and not do all the talking. Time for this type of prayer was in short supply.

So I determined to make it happen.

For many years I was a full-time, single working woman with two jobs, the busy, hands-on mother of five children, and active, involved church member and leader. Saturday mornings became the opportune time for me to get alone with God. By rising extra early before the children would awaken for their breakfast of homemade waffles or pancakes, I would devote myself to a long period of interactive prayer with God. I contemplated His holy Word, sought Him, listened for Him, and absorbed His presence.

Often times I watched the sunrise over the creek with the curtains drawn back, thinking many thoughts as I pondered God’s Word, wrote down my thoughts in a journal, and considered what He seemed to be saying to me or emphasizing  as I made my way through reading of Scripture. The following day another block of time opened up to do more of the same after the hearty Sunday roast dinner was consumed and the children were off entertaining themselves.

Those periods of time alone with God, fully focused on Him and what He wanted to increase in me, were the highlights of my weeks and the joy of spiritual life.

Something happened to me through this new way of spending time with God. I began to learn of God and to feed at His table. Such delight. I began to heal and become whole in my person. I experienced renewal and hope, health and joy. The more I sought Him, the more He showed up and ministered to my inner need. It was amazing, life-changing, real.

I soon realized that my experiences with God in the interior parts were not the norm. Others did not talk of having these precious times alone with God. The confusing part to me at the time was how little I heard of others seeking God in this way or of hearing His quiet, still voice in answer to their heart’s longing. Most seemed to speak of prayer lists and God’s answers to those prayers, devotionals and quiet times, scripted readings, not bad in and of themselves, but routine, predictable, and lacking in the joy of personal discovery and communion with God.

I felt alone in my pursuit of God.

Christian people seemed to know about God intellectually, cerebral head knowledge, but not so much in the sweetness of vital relationship. Later on, through some of my reading, I became sensitive to historical authors, many of them Catholic, who experienced God in the unity of close fellowship and caring relationship.  Commonalities began to jive and solidify as I noticed some remarkable trends in the authors I was reading. I would find tears welling up in my eyes as my heart recognized an understanding of God and His love that we shared as brothers and sisters in love with our Savior and God.

Writers who have experienced God in the closeness of unity of relationship write differently than those who don’t. I find their writings to have a softness of expression, and their love for God leaps off the pages of their writings. Their opinions seem less opinionated, less rigid, more loving, kind, and respectful of God and His mysteries. They write with gentle passion and with an awe for God and His truths. Such joy.

There is a term used to set these people apart, a strange term to an evangelical Protestant. It is the way of the Christian mystic, spiritually sensitive people who gain strength from the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

But one doesn’t realize this, what it is that these people have found, until you yourself have also entered that realm of deepening unity with the Father. Deeper prayer, where one focuses their thoughts on God, is like opening up your spirit to a greater, holy realm of inner peace and joy.

It is like becoming more alive.

A small disclaimer may be in order. There is a great fear among evangelicals concerning such things, of anything that seems mystical in nature or seems somehow related to a new age concept. I understand this. We must be careful and we must rightly divide the Word of God. But I have realized that some of this feared danger is misplaced for it is always the object of one’s faith that holds the key as to whether it’s a right or wrong objective.

Prayer is both the starting and the ending place.