By Rachel Britton
“What is your biggest struggle with prayer?”
I did not expect the flood of replies from my readers.
“I really want to learn … how to hear and know His voice.” “I struggle with unanswered prayer.”
“Why bother [praying] if God is going to do whatever He wants anyway?”
Prayer can be difficult to master; we know that from the abundance of books on the subject. Prayer is simple yet puzzling. Prayer can be taught, yet there is more to it than knowledge.
We try to grasp the practice of prayer, but still, it slips through our fingers.
As I follow through on my calling to help people feel more comfortable and confident in prayer, I want them to embrace prayer in three ways.
1. Embrace the Mystery
Most of us find the practice of prayer an unsolved problem.
We can make coffee regularly each morning, but developing a prayer rhythm seems impossible. We can talk for hours to a friend, but we fall short in finding the right words to say to our Heavenly Father who is closer than a friend. There is no shame in our quandary.
Even Jesus’ disciples, the ones who lived, breathed, ate, slept, walked with Him, asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” I love their honest request. They were devout, temple-going, righteous men.
Prayer was a regular part of their day. And yet they knew there was more to prayer than what they practiced. Perhaps we can approach prayer in the same way as the disciples—to not fret over whether we’re getting it right.
Simply ask God to teach us how to pray, to do our best to embrace this mystery.
2. Embrace the Longing
Part of the reason we get flustered over prayer is because we have a God-shaped hole in our hearts, a deep longing to connect with the heart of God.
David expressed this longing well.
In Psalm 27:4 he says, “The one thing I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple” (NLT).
Isn’t this what we want? Isn’t this why we pray?
David goes on to say: “Hear me as I pray, O Lord. Be merciful and answer me! My heart has heard you say, ‘Come and talk with me.’ And my heart responds, ‘Lord, I am coming’” (verses 7–8).
We can use the same words as our prayer. And so, prayer is an invitation to “come and talk with Me.”
3. Embrace the Invitation Prayer is an invitation to know the greatness of God—
His wisdom, forgiveness, healing, deliverance, satisfaction, peace, protection and so much more that He gives us.
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV) .
As I invite my readers to enter into the mystery of prayer, to fulfill the longing of their hearts, I do not know what will happen because of those conversations.
But I am convinced that God will do great and mighty things.
Rachel Britton is a British-born author, speaker, and creator of Amazon’s Alexa “Say a prayer.” Her latest book is Pray Naturally (Our Daily Bread Publishing). Find Rachel at rachelbritton.com
