Do you pray? Why? How? When? Where? What? Prayer isn't supposed to be a ritual. Prayer isn't saved only for emergencies, Sunday and Wednesday nights. Prayer isn't some repetitive string of words memorized as a child. Prayer isn't a one way conversation. So, just what is prayer? For some, it's a solace where they can ask or tell God what they want. Others seem to think that it's some religious requirement and holds mystical elements necessary for something. All of this brings us to our personal prayers. Why should we pray? Because God wants to talk WITH us and not be talked to. The Old Testament and New alike show a stubborn people who believe the "why" is to get from God something...anything. That doesn't work. How we pray is equally important. It's not that we pray but how we approach the living and living God of the universe. Yet, history is full of people who have propagated the repetitive phrases like some kind of magic formula necessary for daily living. When we pray isn't so much a question but more like why don't we pray all the time like the Bible tells us. Same goes for where we pray. There is no closer place to be with God than with bended spirit and heart wherever you find yourself. What we believe is prayer versus what is prayer comes to haunt us when we look over our motives for all these questions. We don't have a vending machine God who automatically gives us what we ask or demand.
The sixth word in the above list is "who". Who do we pray with? I'll tell you. You and I are to be praying/talking with our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit. We know that the trinity work together to give us life. When we pray we are supposed to know the love of God so intimately that we can talk with Him intimately. Jesus played with children, loved sinners and healed the sick. He spoke with the outcast and crossed every barrier to bring himself to an intimate relationship with himself. Making it personal he chose to take our sins upon himself and die a terrible death on the cross. Do you feel the pain God went though when Jesus died on the cross for you? Who do you worship is just as important as why you worship. Because of free will mankind has invented everything that HE thinks is necessary and important to the point of telling God he is wrong. There is no intimacy with that. When we pray to the living, loving and gracious Lord of the universe we are to be in that space where we recognized and know the love that brought Him to that cross. He loved us so that we could know love. Intimate prayer is being in a constant state of prayer according to Scripture. There is no need to question who as there are only two gods in existent. One true and one false. You choose either to worship one or the other. The only intimate one is God.
We are a people who are in a hurry. Yet, we serve a God who wants us to take time to get to know him. Have you ever considered whether you hear the voice of God? Do you? God wants and is talking with you. Can you recognize and hear his voice? Have you ever heard his voice? IF we are in tune with God, we can hear the voice of God speaking to us individually as well as collectively. What does that require? The Bible tells us to wait on the Lord. It's not to wait until he gets ready. It's to wait so that we can have a quiet heart with no distractions. Do you make the time to be quiet? The need to have a clean heart is also necessary in prayers. Imagine that your sin has distanced yourself from God because it has. When we have something harbored in our hearts we are unable to have that intimacy with God. Just as you show your adoration to your spouse in an intimate matter, God wants your adoration as well. Take time to tell God what you feel about him. Remember you will spend eternity with him if you know him as Lord and Savior. Thanking God for what he has done for you is a good way to keep the intimacy personal and positive. Finally, finding yourself in that place of intimacy with God and loving on each other, tell him your concerns, needs (not wants) and desires. Prayer is awesome! Prayer is a constant relationship of communication with the first love of your life...Jesus. If you have this relationship in proper perspective there will be no need to make specific times and places to pray. You will always be in the place of prayer in your heart and soul! It's always your choice.
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