Anna Tran
Have you ever wanted to speak to God, opened your mouth to pray, and nothing… no words. Not because your mind and heart aren’t full of things to say but because you just don’t know how to ‘pray’ them?
Prayer is essential to Christian life and a universal human desire. When situations are hard, when things feel hopeless, when we feel out of control, hashtag trends can be found all over the internet and social media.
Why is that? What is it about prayer that is so attractive even to the non-religious; but also so hard to practice consistently?
For non-believers, there is an abstract understanding that prayer connects humans to something unseen and bigger than us. They know that through prayer, the human is asking for divine intervention into something that they cannot manage, handle, or control for themselves.
For Christians, prayer is the vehicle of communication between us and the eternal, supernatural God that we call Father. It is a channel of contact that allows us to interact with God, share our hearts and in turn receive directly from His heart.
Scripture tells us to “pray without ceasing…for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18). Prayer is meant to be a continuous activity that we engage with, AND it is part of Jesus’ will for us.
So what can we do to grow in prayer?
- Simplify it.
Matthew 19:14 (NIV) Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
A lot of the time, we struggle to pray because we think that we need to use a specific ‘Christian’ language to speak to God. We are worried that our imperfect, stuttering words are not enough for the King of kings. We think that if our sentences are messy and our words clumsy, that God would not listen to our prayers. But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me.’ He does not want perfection; He does not want fancy, He wants honest, pure, childlike prayers that come from our hearts.
So ditch the fancy language and start focussing on speaking honestly to Him.
- Invest into it.
What do you mean ‘invest’? Well, just like in any relationship, communication ease and understanding of one another come as a result of the investment of time spent together; so it is with God. He is your Father, and friend, but it is not going to be easy right away or all the time. You need to invest time and effort, consistently and in a regular way. Just as you would with any valued relationship.
The bible gives us some tips and hints on how to do this: ‘But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.’ Matthew 6:6-7 (NKJV)
Basically, make space, make time, and get rid of distractions. Sooner than you know, you will find yourself reaping the joy and ease of a well-established relationship with God.
- Rely on the Holy Spirit.
Lastly, a flourishing prayer life cannot be accomplished by our works alone. We need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity, fully God and sent by the Father to help us in many ways. One of the ways that He helps us is that He helps us to pray.
‘Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.’ (Romans 8:26-27)
When you are stuck in your prayer life, you can simply ask the Holy Spirit to help you to pray. He is the One who knows our hearts and knows the heart of God. He is the reminder that we do not need to do anything by our own strength but can fully rely on Him in all things, even in prayer!
So as you re-engage in the discipline and joy of prayer, I pray that you will know that God loves you as you are, that He desires to meet you in prayer, and that He gives us all that we need to have a flourishing prayer life with Him.
