So you have been told that as a Christian, you need to have an active prayer life. Unfortunately, you have no idea how to go about it. There is also the nagging suspicion that you don't seem to have a handle on this whole prayer thing. You may have done some research, read a few books, and still you don't quite seem to get this prayer thing. Unfortunately, while others can offer you suggestions, no one can actually tell you how you need to pray. This is something you will have to discover for yourself. The intent here is to get you started on your own discovery process. Looking for books on interpersonal communications, you will be swamped by hundreds of titles. If you read a few of these books, you will start to notice some common themes that run through them. While each author provides unique insights and views, they do not fundamentality change the communications paradigm. Rather they offer alternative insight. In the end, while you may incorporate some of their ideas, you must still find your own way of communicating.
Why the little blurb on communication? Because prayer, at the most fundamental level, is how you communicate with God. And just as most of us are not gifted orators and must work at our communications skills, that does not mean we avoid communicating. Likewise most of us are not gifted as prayer warriors, but that doe not mean we avoid prayer. We also, over the course of our lives, learned and improved how we communicate. So we must also learn and improve our prayer life. There is another striking parallel between communication and prayer, which succinctly highlights the major problem many have with prayer. Most people can represent their communications patterns as a series of circles with themselves as the origin for each, and each getting larger than the previous. The smallest circle represents our close friends. The ones we communicate with on a regular basis. The successively larger circles represent our regular friends, business associates, acquaintances, etc. With each progressively larger circle, we communicate progressively less. So in which circle do we place God? The proper place, the place most of us would like to claim, would be the inner circle of close friends we talk to all the time. The truth of the matter is that many place God in one of the larger circles, say around service personnel whom we talk to only when we need some thing from them. This is also known as the aspirin bottle God concept. We only take him down off the shelf and use him when we are in pain. This is especially true of those living in affluent societies. These people are not worried about where the next meal will come from, where they will sleep, or whether they will even live to the next sunrise. It is a fact of human nature that we can become so accustom to the thousands of blessing in our everyday lives, that we no longer consider them blessings, but something that is due us. Without significant problems and challenges, many feel no need or obligation to pray. To test this hypothesis, you can take a little test. First, honestly write down what you need to survive. To ensure your honesty, have an impartial third party review and correct your list. Now make a list of everything you have. Compare the two lists. Now answer this question; when was the last time you thanked God for anything you have that did not appear on your need to survive list, as these items are luxuries and blessings. While the bible has much information on prayer, it has purposefully been avoided in this discussion. The point of the discussion is to make ourselves aware of our own need for prayer, and why we tend to avoid it. It is unfortunate, that for many of us, it will take a major life altering event to make us realize our need for God and prayer.
Last update : Saturday, 15 September 2007
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