21-Day Fast, Day 4

When my wife and I first can to church years ago, our lives were completely changed, and we were faced with an especially important question: Now What?

We did not know how to “be” Christian and we had a lot of questions. Matthew 6:33 became the verse that would keep us pursuing the right answers. We did not always know what to do or why we needed to do it, but we could always “seek first the Kingdom of Heaven” and simply trust God with the rest. We learned to seek God in our worship, in our giving, in our serving, and in our prayer. Although we did not really know how to pray, we did know it was about connecting with our God in Heaven.

Prayer can be clumsy and awkward. One-sided conversations tend to be that way. When we pray, we often run out of things to say and it becomes one long monologue of our needs, our desires, our frustrations, our shortcomings, our failures, God’s lack of timing, etc. Prayer, however, is not meant to be a monologue. It is always meant to be a dialogue between the Creator and his finest creation. The problem is: we do not stop praying long enough to allow God to answer.

Prayer should involve moments of talking and moments of listening. It is in the stillness of His presence that we can listen for God’s response, which quickly turns prayer from an awkward rant to a meaningful conversation. I learned through prayer, and only through prayer, that God is more interested in relationship and not rhetoric. He wants to talk and is not worried about technique. Heartfelt prayer, without any fear of doing it wrong, turns our conversation into communion, and it is in communion that we draw closer to God. This is God desires from us, that we draw close.

If we can slow ourselves down and seek Him, like Matthew 6:33 says, then the things that concern us about prayer (how we should pray, or what words to use) become less important, and we learn what matters most is simply getting in His presence. Our focus shifts from ourselves to Him, this changes our whole perspective on prayer. The goal: we become more like Him.

“A church that prays: Is a church leaning into God like never before…”