Recently, I've been thinking about when and
how I pray. Having grown up in Christian school and in church every time
the doors were open, I'm especially familiar with not only the Lord's Prayer,
but also the ACTS of Prayer(Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and
Supplication). I now understand both the Lord's Prayer and the idea of
ACTS were meant to be examples to help us and NOT formulas. But, as a teenager,
I internalized there must be a right way and wrong way to pray. A simple
"Help!" prayer must have a spirit of Adoration, Confession and
Thanksgiving surrounding it in order to be heard. A prayer of just supplication
would be frowned upon before the throne of God above. There was a right
and wrong way to pray in my mind...no one ever taught me that. But, in
the black-white way I viewed the world, I took away that unless I did it right,
my prayers would not be heard and therefore would not be effective.
And honestly, I think I gave up on it for awhile. If I didn't have time to use all the right language and insert scripture into my prayers, were they even worth anything? Was God up there grading my prayers and only listening to the ones that followed the formula? I knew I needed to pray, but I didn't. I wanted to pray. I wanted to speak to Jesus like he was a friend. I wanted to converse with God in the intimate way I could hear in other people's voices, but I felt like every word I uttered needed to pass the editorial board before it could be heard.
And honestly, I think I gave up on it for awhile. If I didn't have time to use all the right language and insert scripture into my prayers, were they even worth anything? Was God up there grading my prayers and only listening to the ones that followed the formula? I knew I needed to pray, but I didn't. I wanted to pray. I wanted to speak to Jesus like he was a friend. I wanted to converse with God in the intimate way I could hear in other people's voices, but I felt like every word I uttered needed to pass the editorial board before it could be heard.
My dad has always said that having children
will "change your prayer life," and I believe it has definitely been
in the last several years that I have begun to glimpse the power of prayer for
which I had longed. First of all, I am already holy. When I asked Jesus
to be my Savior and received the Spirit, that was it. No ifs, ands, or buts
about it. I am no longer a slave striving out of fear, I am an heir with
Christ. Therefore, I should live as a daughter of the King, walking in
confidence and not in fear.
For ye received not the spirit of bondage
again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are
children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs
with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
with him. Romans 8:15-17
So, when I speak to my Father, I can cry
"Abba...Daddy" the same way I can with my own Father. I have
not only the Spirit to bear witness with me, but I have a High Priest in Christ
who understands each and every prayer I pray.
Having then a great high priest, who hath
passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our
confession. For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like
as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto
the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us
in time of need. Heb 4: 14-16
And my dad doesn't insist that I follow a
formula for speaking with him. He doesn't ask that I only speak to him at
certain times of the day. He loves me. He wants to talk to me
whenever I call. If my earthly father loves me like that, how much more does my
heavenly father? Prayer is an important part of our faith. It's something we
GET to do. I get to talk directly with the God of the
Universe whenever and wherever I want. I need to pray in the same way I
want to tell my daddy about big news in my life, or ask his advice on what I
should do in a situation.
Prayers do not have to be perfect. I do not
have to strive to be perfect. In my Father's eyes, I am covered with the blood
of Jesus and I am already made holy. The process of sanctification is not
to work "for" my salvation, but as Paul says "work out [my]
salvation" in the process of fixing my eyes on Jesus and becoming more
like him in the everyday mundane. There is nothing I can do or not do to
make God love me any more or any less. Prayer is the working out of our
salvation as we learn to rely on Him instead of a formula we try to do
ourselves.
"I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless.
I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't
change God. It changes me." -C.S. Lewis
--Gabrielle Haston
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