[This reflection by David Makanjuola was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 23/Apr/2023]
During the Connect in Faith meeting last weekend, the subject of prayer came up. In particular, how it can be difficult to pray. The reasons for this varied from not enough time, to too many distractions.
I thought a bit more about this after the session. One of the reasons I find it difficult to pray is that I do not set aside enough time for it, and when I do, I find that I am sometimes watching the clock to get to the end of the prayer time. Another reason is not having a structure to the time I have set aside, which means that I wander off course very easily. Interestingly, I also feel uncomfortable with structured prayer, partly because it can become something I do according to a pre-specified formula, rather than something which can (perhaps should) be spontaneous.
When I pray, there are times when doubt seeps in and I start to wonder whether God will answer my prayer. There are also sometimes when God seems quite distant, and I wonder whether he is there. I know in my heart however, that he is there, so I then think at these times, that it is me that is at fault and guilt then seeps in.
Sometimes, the sheer number of things we want to pray for is a bit overwhelming and we don’t know where to start, so we choose not to start. None of this seems right.
Prayer is how we communicate with God. We start a conversation in which we share what lays heavy on our heart with the one person who we know understands us fully and is never too busy to listen to us. We have the opportunity to ask for his advice as to what to do in the various situations we find ourselves in, and to ask Him to give us the wisdom and courage to follow the guidance He gives us. This sort of communication deepens the relationship we have with Him.
We should look forward to these meetings with God. The Apostle Paul says that we should pray without ceasing. I don’t think he meant us to do this grudgingly, or out of duty. Think about those people in your life whose company you cherish. We can’t wait to meet them, to share what’s going on in our lives with them. They laugh with us and sit with us through times when we are sad. They bring us comfort and encourage us. We trust them enough to tell us the truth even if it isn’t what we want to hear. We value their counsel.
If we look at prayer like this, it turns prayer into something we look forward to and can’t wait to do. I think Jesus’ disciples recognised this when they saw Jesus pray and that it is probably why one of them asked him “Lord, teach us to pray”.
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Last week’s reflection: Come, Let Us Reason Together by Dennis Ginter
Contributed by David Makanjuola; © David Makanjuola