Shift from communication to communing  

My car stalled part-way out the drive-way. My boys and I thought we were on our way in to help set up for the Sunday worship service, instead we’re quickly finding a chain and towing the car out of the way.  

What could be wrong… failure of the plugs and wire, moisture in the distributor, a crack in head gasket? Maybe. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that there is no oil registering on the dip-stick. Something is seriously wrong under the hood and there is no power and no movement.

Prayer is one of the most impactful practices in your life with Christ. William Law wrote that God is closer to us than our own bodies and it’s prayer that unites us to God-Who-is-Close. 

Jesus was a master at prayer. His prayer life kept Him close to the Father, gave Him insight, wisdom, power and sustaining energy (Mark 1:35, Luke 6:12, Luke 22:43).

While prayer is so critical, for most us we can’t get out of the driveway. 

Odds are, you and I are part of the huge percentage of people that feel guilty about our prayer-life… or more accurately our lack of a life of prayer. But no matter how guilty we feel about our powerless prayer-life, feeling bad about it doesn’t seem to create any positive movement.  

Like yeast in the bread dough, I’m learning there is one ingredient necessary to give life and zeal to our practice of prayer. While spiritual practices, accurate knowledge of God, and regular accountability are all super important elements if we’re going to pray like Jesus, we’re still not going anywhere without this one crucial shift in our thinking. 

The Most Important Shift in Prayer 

Vibrant, effective, life-giving prayer arises from shifting our definition of prayer from communicating to God to communing with God. Prayer is no longer about controlling God, getting something from God, proving our faithfulness or words on top of words. Christian prayer is different. Praying like Jesus means our goal is simply this: being with the Father.  

Communicating to God is good. It’s an act of humility to name our needs, present our worries, and own our sins. In communicating to God I can echo the angels in heaven by declaring the splendor and wonder of God. One of the ways you’ll measure your life of prayer is by the frequency and content of your communication to God. But you probably won’t develop a life of prayer by saying more and better words.  

With not To 

Prayer is so much bigger than just saying words. I love my wife. I will say loving words to her. Spoken words of affection are an important element of love, but you’d understand her frustration if my love was never more than words. If I walked in the house after work, spewed nice words for five minutes and then proceeded to ignore her the rest of the evening my life with her would be a shallow version of what it could be! In the same way love is bigger than spoken words, so prayer is more than just the content of our speech to God.  

Prayer is being with God.   

“Prayer does not mean asking God for what we want; it is rather the desire for God himself. It is not asking but union with God. It is breathing and living in God.” Sadhu Sundar Singh 

Sadhu Sundar Singh: Essential Writings. ed. Charles E. Moore.

So try this: stop thinking of prayer as merely an act of asking and telling. In the same way you might step out of the house in order to enjoy the sunshine, take some moments to step out of preoccupation and enjoy the fact of God’s nearness. Find a chair or a stump and be.  

See Luke 6:12; James 4:8; Acts 17:28