Meditations

Prayer Is Talking With God

- Preferably not to Him but with Him. As in any conversation - Attention to the other is one of the prerequisites - it is a sign of sincerity, respect, and caring. Undivided attention is the greatest sign of these.

But He, who sees and knows the ‘heart’ on one hand knows if it is a forced, superficial attention or an “awed” attention at just the fact of conversing with God. So perfection would consist of truly lifting the mind (intellect and reasoning), and the heart (the spirit) and inner self (maybe even the emotional self) to God. Since I cannot attain perfections where is the point or line of over concentration between ‘trying’ and more important and acceptable that I “do”? Can I “reason” here to learn and perfect but in the meantime pray as I am?

The question is, “where am I in prayer and revealed knowledge about prayer? Do I pray within that ‘already’ framework? Or am I in laziness praying at something less than that which I should be? In setting these thoughts down, I am afraid that there will be contradictions and that some of the extensions of particular thoughts will be unanswered and hence troubling. If in some way the confusion has entered into the situation then I claim and proclaim the power and protection of the Holy Spirit and tell you, evil one, to flee in the name of Jesus. Holy Spirit may I have wisdom, understanding and knowledge in this matter of my own personal prayer.

To praise you in prayer - am I telling You in your glory or telling you that I recognize Your omni - everything - or am I in reality telling myself about you. If it is any or some combination of all these, are the words important for good praise-prayer, or is it the reality of effort and/or willingness the essences of the prayer - “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord” - since there are different noises-voices, instruments, clapping, etc it is the noise that is joyful (always?) or is it the heart of the noise maker that is to be joyful? Now is there a point or line between multiplication of words or vain repetition (praise you Lord, Thank you Lord, You are _ _ _, Lord) or is the magnitude of all angels and saints at one time praising more like a crescendo of noise that is praise?

With regard to contrition in my prayer, I can’t imagine any other than just from the heart saying I’m sorry and having a genuine feeling that I have offended God, and of course that I don’t expect to sin again.

In the area of prayer of Thanksgiving, again sincerity seems to be the concern. “Thank You, Lord, for everything”, and enumerating some things. The problem is that it becomes a litany or recitation mostly without feeling or dwelling on the gift, probably because I have become so use to it because it is commonplace. Since I can’t enumerate everything, perhaps just one area (Family, health, physical things, etc.) per prayer time would be more practical.

The heaviest question in my personal prayer is that of supplication. I imagine that all my learning and “growth” are causing the unrest. I don’t know if that is a natural progression according to your plan or if it human intellect getting in the road of faith and/or simplicity. On one hand you teach “thy will be done on earth” All your will encompasses - If He can array the lillies of the field in all their splendor, how much more He knows your needs and will meet them. Do not be anxious Mat. 6:25-34. Is anxious the key word?

Ask but do not be worried or anxious, or since He has promised (and then what about the starving and the poor) seek the Kingdom with my prayers and efforts and just let the other things follow from the already provided for job and talents. If that is so then why “Give us our daily bread?” Surely this was not symbolic bread like the Eucharist or yourself because you are the Bread of Life.

When you prayed to the Father for your apostles you told or proclaimed facts and conditions to the Father which He already knew. Were you proclaiming, so that by doing so, you were acknowledging the reality to yourself or to the Father or both? The reference in that prayer seemed to touch on both the spiritual and the physical that would ultimately affect the spiritual. ‘None have perished’, by that reference did You mean Judas was dead in sin. If they could be touched or tainted by worldly things into sinfulness, are You asking the Father to protect them from evil which probably included the physical?

Is it presumption to ‘tell you what to do’ - Bless him, protect her, give this or that, be something, don’t let, hear, etc. Or is there a blanket assumption of “Father, I pray that you would……”? Is it acceptable to You that once I have come to ask this question that I need not to be troubled with format because I have recognized and proclaimed this assumption?

Now, Jesus, You have made some statements and promises that I have not been able to reconcile with reality as I know it. Your Word has amply told us to pray, and right now the concern is about prayer that is to change things or bring about a condition. On one hand, the essence of several scriptures promise that “whatever we ask in Your name, believing, having faith, trusting, it shall be given or done.” There doesn’t seem to be any qualifications or prerequisites except for one. If it were not according to the Father’s will, neither should we be seeking nor want anyhow. Is it the Father’s whole will that I ask in prayer and then He will act, even though it was His will that I have it to begin with? Sort of like a parent who would not hesitate to give a child a nickel to buy something that is good for the child, but does not just offer and give it as long as the child has not expressed the desire, and there is no detriment to the child in not having the unvoiced desire met. Are there areas of an ambivalence where God says in effect “If you ask, -- ok If you didn’t think or it wasn’t important enough to you to ask-That’s okay too”? Before I get to the absolute of the promises, there is another area.

Since the Father wills that we pray, is this prayer the difference between struggling, worry, unpeace, when something is taking place or task is being attempting and the grace and confidence in that which we are involved in will take place or be accomplished without the worry and unpeace? --- Not necessarily without a struggle or hardship though since that may well have been part of the overall task or problem. Sort of, “You can give it everything your have--- or pray, and I’ll add a helpful ingredient.”

Jesus, what is the extent of the absoluteness of the statement/promise,”… Ask the Father anything in my name, and He will give it to you.” “… If any two of you agree on anything on earth, it shall be done.” “All things whatsoever you shall ask in pray, believing, you shall receive.” Mt 21:22 Ask and it shall be given you--seek, knock shall receive. “’Ask anything in my name and I will give it to you” John 4:13

Jesus, these are Your words. If there is a hidden or unrevealed nuance or implication, please let me know that it is so, even if You do not choose to reveal it to me. I do not ask for the understanding to gain power, but rather to have peace about your Word and the direction to pray. The words by our human understanding and my interpretation seem to say that a request for fulfillment of a need, or even a desire that I think will be of benefit to me, that if I ask it of You or the Father, and proclaim the power of the name of Jesus or proclaiming that I am asking this of the Father in Your name and the strength and power that you have in the Father, that if I trust (or believe) that it can be done and will be done - So be it.

Father, some teach us that You answer prayer, rather than grant the situation prayed for, and sometimes the answer is no. That seems to make sense to the human thinking, but the scripture does not seem to say this. Nor does it specifically say that there are times when You do not grant the prayer, but more or better for us than we envisioned or asked for in prayer, because You know what is best for us and Your bounty is not limited to the smallness of our understanding of our needs - but who could deny this as practical and Godly and all-wise - but it does not reconcile with these scriptures.

Or have we put ourselves under an umbrella by saying “Thy will be done”, that every prayer request automatically allows Your will to supercede any will or desire of ours.

If that is the case and it would seem to be peaceful and acceptable to me, who is convinced of the Supremacy and perfect rightness of Your will over the human and imperfections of my own, I ask you to remove the doubts and lies of ‘cop-out’ that the evil one and the world try to confound me with.

Now, as far as the appearances or emotions or feelings of sincerity or intenseness have anything to do with, when the Father knows the heart and for the most part we both know that the prayer is praise, a discipline and a reaching out and touching. Sort of like calling someone on the phone and even if you didn’t communicate by words, the line would be open and the two people would know that each is there.

Thank You Lord, Jesus.