I grew up hearing my dad pray but prayer still confused me for decades! I practiced praying, read books (including the Bible) on it, participated in discussions about it and even later preached on it yet always had the sense there was more to it than I understood. In recent decades I discovered meaningful prayer is a lot like communicating with your best friend. It has two major components: words and intuitive connection.
While words are important, prayer does not rise or fall on just words. Jesus made that point in Matthew 6:7 where He debunked praying empty words. Isaiah told the Jews When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look. Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen … (Isaiah 1:15b, NLT2). When one’s heart is not in their prayer it irritates God. That kind of praying reminds me of the proverbial conversation between a husband and wife. The wife is talking, and the husband is reading the paper or watching TV and either grunts out an uh hu or speaks a few words if he hears her ask a question. The wife is certainly aware that type of interaction can hardly be classified as communication.
When you are communicating with your best friend you are engaged in what is being said—or in whatever you are experiencing together. Guys particularly can sit in a car, on a rock or be working on a project together rarely looking at each other yet feeling like they are communicating with each other. As important as words are, they alone don’t make a prayer.
The second and most vital element of prayer is your intuition or inner being. When you reach out with that part of your being, there is an indescribable connection with God that is far deeper than words. At this level of engagement, you are so aware of God it is as though He is present with you whether driving a car, walking on the treadmill, working on a computer or kneeling.
When you sense within you that God is present, whether pouring out your emotions, asking Him questions, expressing gratitude or making a request, you are best positioned to feel His heart and hear whispers. It is then that your inner being will experience a sense of relief and well-being as well as an assurance you have met with God.
While I have such delightful times with God when He whispers to my inner being, they occur in any variety of settings. The most common time I sense I am communicating with Him is when I am sitting at a computer reflecting on a Bible word or passage. Perhaps I can best liken it to having an ah ha moment. At times the revelation brings such excitement while typing words pouring out of that conversation that I have to find my wife and share it with her. Normally it was something He whispered to me about Himself, His values or His word. For me there are times it seems God doesn’t show up and I feel like David who asked O LORD, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I am in trouble? (Psalm 10:1, (NLT2). However, by continuing to practice prayer, I’ve found I come to agree with David’s encouraging report, You will listen, O LORD, to the prayers of the lowly; you will give them courage (Psalm 10:17, GNB). The same will be true for everyone. I so want each person to find a way to pray so each will experience the indescribable satisfaction of engaging with our Heavenly Father who desires to connect with each of His children.
I appreciate your skill in communicating such a personal and important part of the experience with have available to us – humans in connection with their loving Maker.
For a bit of humor, I recall this old poem: https://verse.press/poem/the-prayer-of-cyrus-brown-27003