I am not a great prayer warrior. You might be a more dedicated prayer warrior than I. I have come to prayer as someone who has not found it easy but has found it rewarding.
I spend time with God in prayer and that is the greatest thing I’ve ever found. EVER.
For me, I’ve learned to pray as I have spent time with God in varied and creative ways. Some of those ways come from the traditions of the branches of the Church… the monastic traditions, the early church, liturgical forms, artistic expressions and Jesus Himself.
Time spent alone, in quiet contemplation, fasting, studying Scripture, times of listening, times of gratitude, listening in God’s creation, trying different physical postures of prayer, praying with artistic methods, praying with others and finding God’s Spirit leading us together to Himself or to what He wants to say to us.
One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. Mark 10:13
That’s my sense of what we do in prayer. We come to be touched by Jesus. And in the touching we will be blessed.
We might think we come to have a need met. ‘God give me this, help me with that and please help this person who needs your loving touch.’ But the reality is that we need to be touched by Jesus. It’s not about the need or the stuff or the requests. Those things will follow. We need them and we cry out for them. But we need one thing more. It’s about Jesus’ touch.
That’s it. Connecting with God, being touched by Jesus, the river of the Spirit’s power flowing through our lives.
The second sentence of that verse says, ‘but the disciples scolded the parents for bothering Jesus’.
People think God is too busy for them. We all have that scolding voice inside of us. Telling us, ‘God is busy so don’t waste his time, get down to business, tell him what you need and move on’. That’s not the Spirit speaking to us!
Or we might actually say the same thing because we’re so busy. ‘Get on with it, got a busy day!’ But Jesus told His followers to come to Him if they are burdened and weary and that He will give us rest. We need rest. We need connection to Christ.
And in Mark 10, if you read on [please grab a Bible and do!] while Jesus’ disciples scolded the parents for bothering Jesus, that was not His reaction. He welcomed the children and blessed them. That’s what He wants to do with us! The Spirit seeks to connect us constantly with our Father in Heaven. He wants to be with us. He wants us to love Him and He wants to love us.
The needs and concerns are there, yes of course they are. That’s life on our tumultuous, confused, broken, consumeristic world. But first and foremost BE with God. Jesus opened the way in his death and resurrection but not to a customer service desk. He opened the access to the Father.
Let’s go! Kneel, sit, walk, run, lie down but turn to Jesus and speak to Him. He’s waiting for you with open arms. Let us pray.