As we journey in our faith, we often find ourselves striving to mirror God’s righteousness in our daily lives, a task that is insurmountable on our own. This can lead to a seemingly endless cycle of failure and repentance, keeping our focus on sin consciousness rather than the truth that we have been renewed and restored in His image—a fact that the Holy Spirit reveals to us if we can but hear.
Where are we most apt to hear from the Holy Spirit but in prayer? This is another area of our lives where we find ourselves striving to get it right so we are confident we have heard from the Lord and are living as we believe He would want us to in order to glorify Him. But like the wanderings we experience in our daily lives, do you ever find yourself wandering in your prayer life?
I can’t recall the exact number of times I started prayer with the best of intentions and found that within five minutes, my mind was wandering all over the place. I would berate myself hearing the words, “Where’s your head at?” I knew I had not yet arrived at that sweet spiritual spot that was going to ensure that God would hear my prayer. After all, we have been told how you say it, and the frame of mind you are in influences how God hears and answers, right?
Early in my Christian Walk, I would have enthusiastically agreed with that statement, but not for a long time now. It took some time, study, and prayer to actually figure out that coming to God with a laundry list of wants and needs took only minutes to recite. The checklist of sins that needed to be recited so I could be sure God knew that I knew what I had messed up would sometimes take a bit longer. But all total, prayer could be accomplished in five to ten minutes by means of that much-used “I am in a hurry but need to cover my bases method.”
Prayer is not just a method of communication with our Creator; it is a powerful tool for transformation that we, as Christians, need to explore deeply. Our prayer life should not be words for diversion or distraction; it is a key to unlocking our potential for change!
For that reason, we need to consider prayer is not meant to be just a passive reflection of emptying our brains into mindless thinking. Neither is it an endless list we recite as if repetitive imploring is the only way to be heard. Prayer is the direct communication of the human soul with God. It is a give-and-take that brings us to a point of conversation. A conversation that has the power to transform our thinking, which, in turn, translates to how we relate and respond to life.
During prayer, we believe that God hears us, but He also needs us to realize the seemingly random thoughts wandering through our confessions are less likely we are failing at paying attention and instead revealing a more important purpose to the conversation. Instead of chastising ourselves for getting off track, maybe we should stop and reflect on the area we were drawn to and ask, “Lord, if you brought my mind here, what do I need to think, know, learn, or do here?”
Many times, we try to deflect the things that worry us as if we are bothering God with our petty issues. But when anxious and stressed, our minds stay laser-focused on those issues, and we feel we are not reflecting the appropriate amount of holiness or gratitude when that happens. We are trying so hard to live a Christian life that we forget God’s intention toward us. God cares deeply for our concerns and the situations we face every day. It is not inconceivable that He may be diverting our thoughts during prayer to get us to open up to Him.
We would do better to let go of the control we try to exert and instead give Him the opening to let us explore whatever is brought to our attention. As we do that, we cease compartmentalizing things; rather, we expose them to His wisdom, goodness, and mercy. We acknowledge and cherish the time He gives us to hear and to be heard, clearing our minds and directing us to recognize just as He listened, so will He answer.
In that understanding, we open our hearts and souls to the revelation of absolute truth that God is greater than the sum of our experience and trouble. When we know He takes the time to listen to the sufferings of our situation, we can be assured He will also make a way for us out of it. We have only to read the Psalms, which recount the many times David started conversations with God full of anxiety but ultimately ended up in praise and worship as He remembered God’s greatness. David didn’t give a thought to what his prayer looked like; he just trusted God was leading Him to address all the distractions to be replaced with hope. Now, that’s quite a two-way conversation, don’t you think?
At the end of the day, prayer can be much like any other conversation in our life. We speak and listen to our friends and let the conversation wander its true course. Our conversations are not the same with everyone; they are individual to each relationship and situation. And so, it is with our relationship and our conversation with God. Wandering in prayer can be more intentional than you might understand at first and eventually become transformational. We are not relegated to the distraction of our minds’ futility but become grounded in the knowledge that we are in a relationship with God. An honest two-way dialogue with God where we listen at least as much as we speak is the kind of conversation that refreshes our souls as we become filled with hope and God’s great love.
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