To Live is Christ — talking to my Father

In a discussion about prayer, one woman said that she was often confused and even angry about the way another person treated her. Someone asked if she had told God how she felt. She replied, “Oh, I could never talk to God that way. It would be disrespectful.”

Her response startled me. I’ve read the Psalms and noticed how many are prayers where the writer is expressing the deepest anguish of their heart. God doesn’t seem to mind if we dump on Him. Who better to hear our innermost thoughts?

Since then, I have to admit that I sometimes listen to how people are praying rather than praying along with them. The prayers that bless me the most are not those where the person speaks as if they are in a formal meeting or in front of an English professor. I’m most blessed when someone simply pours out their heart.

Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah (Psalm 62:8)

God must feel the same way because He asks us to do that in this verse and in many other places in the Bible. He wants to hear our deepest desires and thoughts. My devotional reading says, “Pour, not drip or trickle.”

I’ve prayed those trickle prayers. Sometimes I’ve been conscious of others in the room and want my prayer to ‘sound right’ rather than have the broken sentences of poured-out prayers. Sometimes I feel that the situation is not right to deluge those around me with what I could pour out toward God. I’m continually in need of the reminder that prayer is not a conversation with a prayer partner or other praying people; prayer is talking with God.

In our home, my husband asks God’s blessing at our meals. When we are alone, he often asks me to do it. When our family is here, he usually prays, but on days like Father’s Day or his birthday, the children ask me to pray. Last time, one of them said, “We don’t get to hear mom pray very often.”

Because their spiritual lives are not as healthy as they could be, I am instantly aware of the importance of how I pray, but I’m also aware that this is not the place to preach a sermon in a prayer. I am talking to God, not my children.

Turning the direction of prayer from a local audience to the One who hears and answers requires a distinct choice. For me, this often involves discerning whether I am trusting Him at all times. Am I trusting Him right now, as I pray? Or am I going to use my prayer to manipulate others?

The spiritual condition and attitudes of those who listen are not my responsibilities. Although I know God can use the prayers of His people to touch the hearts of those who eavesdrop, He still asks me to simply pour out my heart to Him.