This last year, in 2013, I learned so much about
prayer.
I think I learned what it’s not, which allowed me to understand what it is…
a tightly woven thread around and within and throughout our hearts connecting us to God through Jesus’s blood
Prayer is talking to God… but it’s so much more than that… it’s the beat of our heart, the attitude of our mind, the song on our tongue, the direction of our thoughts…
all that to say,
prayer is so much more than
words.
It’s acknowledging God throughout the day- in small ways… it’s not fearing because you know the character of the One holding your circumstances in place – He’s good and true and love and incapable of lying, incapable of anything but holiness, fighting for justice, and doling out mercy in the right, perfect time.
Prayer and the Word of God are so closely connected, I’ve come to believe, that to have one without the other… why… I’m not sure it’s possible…
I mean, I know it is.. I think I did them separately for most of my life… or considered them separate, but they’re not… they can’t really be fully and truly experienced, one without the other.
Mark Driscoll says, “God wants to speak to you in Scripture. God wants to hear from you in prayer.”
It is not though, a conversation, a dialogue, as I once thought, because I limited it to human terms, human definitions of each.
As I meditate on it… I realize prayer and God’s Word is an intermingling of colors and words, and weavings… all dancing within and without dimensions and time and space, with pitch perfect melody synchronized in organic ceremony too wonderful for me to comprehend.
But why, you may ask, does it not always feel this way in our day to day lives?
This is the question I am asking because I don’t want to go back…ever… to stale prayers and rote reading for religiosity’s sake.
The answer… the difference…
The Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit swims within our souls…effortlessly linking, flowing, breathing within, deep within where Jesus says…
“I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you…” -John 14:20
It’s so beautiful, so simple, so not something we can simply accomplish and cross off our to-do list to our own credit.
Prayer, God’s Word, walking with the Lord, experiencing true joy instead of fleeting happiness, living life based on anchors of truth in your soul rather than the waves and storms you see based on sight… it’s all just not possible…
in our own strength.
In 2014… and the rest of our lives, may we lay aside our agendas and be swept away gladly by the current of God.
P.S. In 2014, I’m doing Jon Acuff’s “Empty Shelf Challenge“… well, my own version of it! But, it’s pretty cool. Join the challenge and read more books this year! Gotta grow:)
