The Best Conversation You'll Have All Day
My husband is a frequent traveler, and he was away from home for an entire week recently in his now all-familiar stomping grounds of New York City. Any time he leaves of course I start praying, "Please Lord, don't let anything go wrong!" It would just be the worst thing if the air conditioner went out or a kid broke their arm or some other crazy thing that is never far from the realm of possibility! I'm doing good just to keep everyone alive, we don't need anything "extra" to deal with. :)
So one day I'm getting ready to go to the store with a handful of kids...baby in one arm, toddler in the other, Reagan is fiddling with the door or something and I hear "Uh oh." My son had jammed our storm door so that it wouldn't close. The storm door closer mechanism that is often handy for holding open a door was now refusing to close again. I wiggled it and jiggled it. I pushed and pulled and pushed again with all of my might. It wouldn't budge. Ugh! I went to the store anyway, because what else was I going to do?
Over the course of that evening I kept going back outside to try to fix that door. My sister-in-law called and I explained my dilemma. I was so worried that it was permanently broken and my husband was going to come home to some bad news. I finally turned to trusty Google to see how to fix it, and sure enough, it looked as though we had a truly broken door. All I would have to do is remove the mechanism, buy a new one, replace it, and all would be well. It was late, so I thought this would be a good project to tackle the next day.
Only I was awoken at 3:00am that night by the sounds of terrible, rushing winds howling outside. Our house was literally shaking as a huge storm was raging and rattling our windows. Storms don't typically scare me, but this one was really unsettling...and then it hit me. Oh no. The storm door. Our all-glass door was stuck open and there was no doubt in my mind that the wind was going to blow it right off of it's hinges, catching it like a sail in the breeze. Any minute I would hear the sound of shattering glass, if it hadn't happened already!
So I just started to pray. I prayed, "God, please, by some miracle, do NOT let that door break off! Please just let it hang on through the storm." I was half-asleep and drifted off with a pit in my stomach. All I could think was Oh my gosh, Eric is going to kill me. :)
I woke up the next morning and with trepidation made my way down the stairs. I winced as I peeked out one of our side windows to asses the damage, and my heart sank. I couldn't see the door anymore. This is it...I'm dead. I opened up our main door, and to my surprise...there was the storm door, clicked right into place, fully intact. I opened and closed it - it was good as new! Now of course I assumed that the wind blew that door closed, but I can't even tell you how amazed I was because the night before I was using some SERIOUS force to try to close it and it wouldn't budge an inch. Not only was I amazed by what I saw, I was amazed by what I felt when I saw it. A sense of peace washed over me when I opened our main door, and I could almost audibly hear whispered in my ear, "See that? See what I did for you?"
Yes, I believe the wind closed that door, and I believe God used the wind to close it! If he can calm the storm in a raging sea, he can use the wind to shut a door. Maybe even more remarkable was the fact that our once-broken door mechanism was suddenly fixed again. God not only answered my prayer to keep our door intact, but he went above and beyond and completely fixed it. This little story might not seem like much to some of you, but to ME...I was walking with a bounce in my step that whole day! I saw it, I felt it, I heard it...this was an answered prayer from a gracious God.
That's a very long intro into the topic of today, which was posed as a question by my friend Brianne - Hi, Brianne! Since we talk a lot about prayer around here, she asked what is prayer and how do you pray?
Prayer is one part of our two-way communication with God. When we pray we are sharing our life with our father and best friend. We are bringing him our concerns and we are asking him to provide for us, heal us, and grow us. We are taking some time to praise him and thank him for all that he has done. We are asking for protection. We are asking for forgiveness for the things we messed up that day and asking for the strength to not do it again. A good prayer lays it ALL out there, because you can't hide anything from God anyway. He knows our hearts, so omitting anything is pointless. God wants it all and he wants to hear it all, and he doesn't hate you for any of it.
Jesus taught us these things in his model prayer for us:
First, when you are praying personal prayers, Jesus says, "...go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Matthew 6:6
I think of it this way - when you are having a personal conversation with your best friend, do you want the whole world to hear about it? This is between you and Him. Your prayer should be totally uninhibited. You should feel comfortable to say whatever is on your heart. The night before Jesus died, he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane alone. There are times for corporate prayer and then there are times for you to have all alone with your Father.
"And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Matthew 6:7-8
You aren't praying to show off to anybody. You are praying because you recognize that God has the power to answer your prayers and you are recognizing your need for Him. Your speech doesn't have to be flowery, you don't have to know everything about the bible, you don't have to pretend to be anyone that you are not. God knows who you are and he knows what you need...he just wants to hear it from you.
"Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." Start with praising him and thanking him for all that you have and all he has done in your life.
"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." No matter what you are asking for or hoping for, recognize that God's way is best and that he will give you just what you need when you need it. Pray for God's will to be done, and scripture PROMISES you will get just what you are asking for.
"Give us this day our daily bread...." Ask him to provide all of your basic needs for the day, whatever they may be.
"...and forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors." In EVERY prayer we should ask God's forgiveness where it's due, and we should also forgive others for anything they have done to us. Scripture tells us that if we don't forgive others, we cannot be forgiven.
"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We are surrounded by spiritual warfare every day. Make sure to pray for protection and pray on that armor of God. Only spiritual weapons can fight spiritual enemies.
"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Matthew 6:14-15 Straight from the mouth of Jesus!
"The Lord's Prayer" is the perfect rubric for us to follow when outlining our own prayers. There's nothing wrong with reciting it verbatim, but the real purpose of this prayer was to give us a model for our own prayers, not necessarily to repeat it. I'm fairly certain Jesus didn't spend hours in prayer the night before he was crucified just praying these exact words over and over again. :) In fact, we do get a little snippet of what he prayed:
"And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." Matthew 26:39
Whew...I'm not going to lie, this verse is really hitting me today. Crying like a baby retyping these words! He was asking his Father to please spare him if at all possible from what was about to happen to him, but even Jesus Christ recognized that God's way was best. Even Jesus said, not my will but yours be done. We also see Jesus humbling himself by falling on his face before the Father as he prayed.
I believe that we can pray any time, anywhere, in any circumstance. We can pray in the car, we can pray in the elevator, we can pray in the middle of a conversation that is going south, we can pray in the morning, before bed, when we eat, while we run, inside or outside, in a submarine or on a mountaintop, it doesn't matter! He hears us no matter where we are or what we are doing. It's not always possible to hit our knees or fall on our faces before the Lord! However...when it IS possible...when we are all alone and showing reverence to the one we speak to...absolutely kneel or "fall on your face." I've prayed with my whole body laid flat on the floor and my face buried in the carpet because I couldn't GET ANY LOWER than that. :) Sometimes when you're feeling it you just can't help it. I've been walking around the house putting laundry away while I pray, then a thought comes over me and I've dropped everything to hit my knees wherever I'm at. I'm not telling you these things to show you what an amazing prayer life I have...ha...but to share that there isn't any one way to do it and that, yes, our reverence is completely warranted when we recognize how very small we are and how very big our God is.
While we are praying to the Father, we should be asking for things in the name of Jesus. He is the bridge between God the Father and us. "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so the the Father may be glorified in the Son." John 14:13 This is why at the end of prayers you may often hear people say, "In Jesus' name I pray, Amen." Basically just sealing the deal that everything spoken is done in the name of Jesus. We could do a WHOLE post just on the power of the name of Jesus. Hmmm....:)
Prayer is not complicated and it's really just a conversation with our Father. It's how we speak to him. I mentioned earlier that it is just one part of our communication with God, because he DOES speak back to us! He speaks to us through his word and through other people, through devotionals, through nature, through our pastors, through music, and...well, he can use just about anything he darn well pleases! The more you are in-tune and asking him to speak, the more you hear him. Guarantee it. God spoke to me through a tractor trailer truck as I was driving the other day, and no, I am not kidding. Gave me a message sprawled right on the side of it just when I needed it. :) I laughed out loud. God is funny. I love him.
Brianne, I have no idea if this answers the questions you were posing but it's a start for us! I'm really glad you asked, because I hope anyone feels comfortable at any time asking about something that you think may help others or that you may be confused about. If I don't know the answer, I'll find it. ;) Ask away.
I love to pray. I'm addicted to it. God is my very best friend, and we talk to our friends. Prayer has changed my life. It's changed my everyday routine. It's changed...everything. Pretty sure it's changing the future of my family tree as I type. I pray that my children follow the Lord all of the days of their lives. I pray for their future spouses already. I mean...prayer matters. It's huge and it may be the MOST important thing you do with your entire day. So...you should do that. :)
Love you all! Have a great day!
So one day I'm getting ready to go to the store with a handful of kids...baby in one arm, toddler in the other, Reagan is fiddling with the door or something and I hear "Uh oh." My son had jammed our storm door so that it wouldn't close. The storm door closer mechanism that is often handy for holding open a door was now refusing to close again. I wiggled it and jiggled it. I pushed and pulled and pushed again with all of my might. It wouldn't budge. Ugh! I went to the store anyway, because what else was I going to do?
Over the course of that evening I kept going back outside to try to fix that door. My sister-in-law called and I explained my dilemma. I was so worried that it was permanently broken and my husband was going to come home to some bad news. I finally turned to trusty Google to see how to fix it, and sure enough, it looked as though we had a truly broken door. All I would have to do is remove the mechanism, buy a new one, replace it, and all would be well. It was late, so I thought this would be a good project to tackle the next day.
Only I was awoken at 3:00am that night by the sounds of terrible, rushing winds howling outside. Our house was literally shaking as a huge storm was raging and rattling our windows. Storms don't typically scare me, but this one was really unsettling...and then it hit me. Oh no. The storm door. Our all-glass door was stuck open and there was no doubt in my mind that the wind was going to blow it right off of it's hinges, catching it like a sail in the breeze. Any minute I would hear the sound of shattering glass, if it hadn't happened already!
So I just started to pray. I prayed, "God, please, by some miracle, do NOT let that door break off! Please just let it hang on through the storm." I was half-asleep and drifted off with a pit in my stomach. All I could think was Oh my gosh, Eric is going to kill me. :)
I woke up the next morning and with trepidation made my way down the stairs. I winced as I peeked out one of our side windows to asses the damage, and my heart sank. I couldn't see the door anymore. This is it...I'm dead. I opened up our main door, and to my surprise...there was the storm door, clicked right into place, fully intact. I opened and closed it - it was good as new! Now of course I assumed that the wind blew that door closed, but I can't even tell you how amazed I was because the night before I was using some SERIOUS force to try to close it and it wouldn't budge an inch. Not only was I amazed by what I saw, I was amazed by what I felt when I saw it. A sense of peace washed over me when I opened our main door, and I could almost audibly hear whispered in my ear, "See that? See what I did for you?"
That's a very long intro into the topic of today, which was posed as a question by my friend Brianne - Hi, Brianne! Since we talk a lot about prayer around here, she asked what is prayer and how do you pray?
Prayer is one part of our two-way communication with God. When we pray we are sharing our life with our father and best friend. We are bringing him our concerns and we are asking him to provide for us, heal us, and grow us. We are taking some time to praise him and thank him for all that he has done. We are asking for protection. We are asking for forgiveness for the things we messed up that day and asking for the strength to not do it again. A good prayer lays it ALL out there, because you can't hide anything from God anyway. He knows our hearts, so omitting anything is pointless. God wants it all and he wants to hear it all, and he doesn't hate you for any of it.
Jesus taught us these things in his model prayer for us:
First, when you are praying personal prayers, Jesus says, "...go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Matthew 6:6
I think of it this way - when you are having a personal conversation with your best friend, do you want the whole world to hear about it? This is between you and Him. Your prayer should be totally uninhibited. You should feel comfortable to say whatever is on your heart. The night before Jesus died, he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane alone. There are times for corporate prayer and then there are times for you to have all alone with your Father.
"And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Matthew 6:7-8
You aren't praying to show off to anybody. You are praying because you recognize that God has the power to answer your prayers and you are recognizing your need for Him. Your speech doesn't have to be flowery, you don't have to know everything about the bible, you don't have to pretend to be anyone that you are not. God knows who you are and he knows what you need...he just wants to hear it from you.
"Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." Start with praising him and thanking him for all that you have and all he has done in your life.
"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." No matter what you are asking for or hoping for, recognize that God's way is best and that he will give you just what you need when you need it. Pray for God's will to be done, and scripture PROMISES you will get just what you are asking for.
"Give us this day our daily bread...." Ask him to provide all of your basic needs for the day, whatever they may be.
"...and forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors." In EVERY prayer we should ask God's forgiveness where it's due, and we should also forgive others for anything they have done to us. Scripture tells us that if we don't forgive others, we cannot be forgiven.
"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We are surrounded by spiritual warfare every day. Make sure to pray for protection and pray on that armor of God. Only spiritual weapons can fight spiritual enemies.
"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Matthew 6:14-15 Straight from the mouth of Jesus!
"The Lord's Prayer" is the perfect rubric for us to follow when outlining our own prayers. There's nothing wrong with reciting it verbatim, but the real purpose of this prayer was to give us a model for our own prayers, not necessarily to repeat it. I'm fairly certain Jesus didn't spend hours in prayer the night before he was crucified just praying these exact words over and over again. :) In fact, we do get a little snippet of what he prayed:
"And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." Matthew 26:39
Whew...I'm not going to lie, this verse is really hitting me today. Crying like a baby retyping these words! He was asking his Father to please spare him if at all possible from what was about to happen to him, but even Jesus Christ recognized that God's way was best. Even Jesus said, not my will but yours be done. We also see Jesus humbling himself by falling on his face before the Father as he prayed.
I believe that we can pray any time, anywhere, in any circumstance. We can pray in the car, we can pray in the elevator, we can pray in the middle of a conversation that is going south, we can pray in the morning, before bed, when we eat, while we run, inside or outside, in a submarine or on a mountaintop, it doesn't matter! He hears us no matter where we are or what we are doing. It's not always possible to hit our knees or fall on our faces before the Lord! However...when it IS possible...when we are all alone and showing reverence to the one we speak to...absolutely kneel or "fall on your face." I've prayed with my whole body laid flat on the floor and my face buried in the carpet because I couldn't GET ANY LOWER than that. :) Sometimes when you're feeling it you just can't help it. I've been walking around the house putting laundry away while I pray, then a thought comes over me and I've dropped everything to hit my knees wherever I'm at. I'm not telling you these things to show you what an amazing prayer life I have...ha...but to share that there isn't any one way to do it and that, yes, our reverence is completely warranted when we recognize how very small we are and how very big our God is.
While we are praying to the Father, we should be asking for things in the name of Jesus. He is the bridge between God the Father and us. "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so the the Father may be glorified in the Son." John 14:13 This is why at the end of prayers you may often hear people say, "In Jesus' name I pray, Amen." Basically just sealing the deal that everything spoken is done in the name of Jesus. We could do a WHOLE post just on the power of the name of Jesus. Hmmm....:)
Prayer is not complicated and it's really just a conversation with our Father. It's how we speak to him. I mentioned earlier that it is just one part of our communication with God, because he DOES speak back to us! He speaks to us through his word and through other people, through devotionals, through nature, through our pastors, through music, and...well, he can use just about anything he darn well pleases! The more you are in-tune and asking him to speak, the more you hear him. Guarantee it. God spoke to me through a tractor trailer truck as I was driving the other day, and no, I am not kidding. Gave me a message sprawled right on the side of it just when I needed it. :) I laughed out loud. God is funny. I love him.
Brianne, I have no idea if this answers the questions you were posing but it's a start for us! I'm really glad you asked, because I hope anyone feels comfortable at any time asking about something that you think may help others or that you may be confused about. If I don't know the answer, I'll find it. ;) Ask away.
I love to pray. I'm addicted to it. God is my very best friend, and we talk to our friends. Prayer has changed my life. It's changed my everyday routine. It's changed...everything. Pretty sure it's changing the future of my family tree as I type. I pray that my children follow the Lord all of the days of their lives. I pray for their future spouses already. I mean...prayer matters. It's huge and it may be the MOST important thing you do with your entire day. So...you should do that. :)
Love you all! Have a great day!
Thank you so much for your post, and for clearly answering my questions on "what is prayer" and "how does someone pray." I appreciate you taking the time to address these questions, as it helps reaffirm my understanding and I am sure it can help others who might not be hip to the fact that they can have a personal relationship with God - directly, in any place and at any time. How cool is that??
ReplyDeleteIf I had to pick one favorite part of your post, it is this:
"God knows who you are and he knows what you need...he just wants to hear it from you."
Wow. Wow. That is VERY powerful stuff! It would be so easy to shrug our shoulders and say, "why do I need to talk to God? He is all-knowing and all-powerful, right? How can little ol' me talking to HIM make any difference?" The simple answer is that he desires a relationship with each of us. "Who, me?!" Yep, even me!
Thank you for sharing your personal stories and struggles - life can have its challenges, but it is awesome (truly - not the oversaturated and overused version of the word - but in the sense that I am awed) to hear how you turned to God and PRAYED to get through. I appreciate the tangible story of the storm door - I am sad to say, I would be the Doubting Thomas! Well, I am not too sad to say that, as I believe God made me exactly as He intended; I gravitate toward facts and logic - it is what I do and who I am!! Thankfully I also appreciate that I have learned to see God's work and responses to us in the "little" things - like you mentioned God's sense of humor showing you a big sign on a semi, I am so completely tickled when I see bunnies in my yard or when I used to ride Metrolink; I felt like they were God's gifts, special for me. ❤️ So long as those gifts aren't on the road when I am driving, please and thank you!!
Thank you again for the blog, I look forward to next week!
Cheers!
Brianne 😊
Thank you so much, Brianne! I am also in complete awe that the God of the universe gives any care to what I think or what I am going through. I am so humbled knowing that *I* was made for HIS glory. What an amazing God we serve, that he loves and cares for us SO much! I'm so glad you are coming back every week, and thank you so much for your encouragement!
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