Prayer, it’s not as hard as you think!

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Probably one of the first prayers we all remember!

From this point on, most of us have it in grained in us that  prayer is/needs to be a formal written or formally spoken recitation of the same verse(s) to qualify. Not so, God is with us all the time, whether we want Him to be or not. He hears all, sees, all and knows all. So why do we feel that prayer needs to be so formal?

I’ve found that some of my best prayer time has occurred in some of the most unusual places! Like my morning shower, building a campfire, hiking, driving to work, that 4 a.m. wake up whisper from Him, etc. He’s always there, listening and waiting so why not?

Some of my prayers are long conversations with Him, and some are just…God, HELP, I need you! Sometimes he answers right away, sometime He answers loudly, but more often than not, it is a soft, quiet voice and it is always when He knows it’s the right time to answer. We don’t like that part because we live in a society of instant gratification, so we want the answer immediately after we ask the question. God doesn’t work that way! He has the plan, He makes the rules, and He’s always in control.

Prayer, it’s one of the core principles in the Bible. You can’t go a chapter without a reference to the need to pray, the need to talk to God and more so, the need to listen. Too often we are too busy “speaking” to hear God when he does talk to us. We are too busy talking to hear the answer when He gives it to us! Then we’re upset when we feel He isn’t answering or He’s taking too long to answer us.

In scouting, we have a native American story we tell, that is a perfect example of this. I’ll paraphrase it, but it goes something like this:

There was a brave hunter out on his own, hunting for his family. While he was near the river, a storm started brewing. It began to rain and the river began to flood. He prayed to the “Great Spirit” to protect him. A rabbit came by and said to him, “follow me and I’ll lead you to safe ground”. The brave said, No, I’ve prayed to the Great Spirit and he’ll protect me.” The water continued to rise and he climbed up on a rock to be out of the water. A deer came by and said, “climb onto my back and I’ll take you to safer round.” Once again, the brave said “No, I’ve prayed to the Great Spirit and he will protect me.” Now the water continued to rise and the brave had to climb to the top of a tree to stay out of the raging water. An otter swam up to him and said, “Grab onto my tail and I’ll swim you to safety”. He again said “NO, the Great Spirit will surely keep me safe!” The waters continued to rise and at last just as the water was about to sweep him away, a hawk flew to the brave and said, “Grab hold of my talons and I’ll fly you to dry land!” The stubborn brave said “No, I’m sure the Great Spirit will save me, I’ve been praying to him throughout the storm”. The waters continued to rise and the brave went under the water and he died, when he met the Great Spirit, he asked, “Why did you not answer me when I prayed to you for safety?” The Great Spirit, just looked at him and said, “Who do you think sent the rabbit, the deer, the otter and the hawk?”

How often are we like this brave? The Lord, answers us, many times we are just too “noisy” to hear the answer, or He’s giving us the answer we need to hear, but don’t want to. Let’s look at two examples from the Bible, one that shows the result of a prayerful life and one that shows the results of stopping prayer.

Probably one of the most prayerful people in the Old Testament is David.  The Psalms are some of the greatest heartfelt prayers!  The Psalms provide great examples of prayers for many situations, for comfort, forgiveness, praise and thanksgiving, and more.

As for examples of stopping prayer,  just look at the Israelites in general.  Every time they stayed in prayer the Lord blessed them with prosperity and happiness. Then they would “forget” and go back to worshiping idols, living lives like they wanted and not as God instructed. When this happened God was very hard on them.  He’d bring famine, war, and exile.

Prayer is such an important part of our Christian life, it is our most intimate time with the Lord.  When we slip away from prayer we are missing out on a renewal of our spirit by our time spent with Him.