The Blessing of Trust Prayers
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
Prayer is a weird and wonderful blessing God offers us. I always roll my eyes when I hear people describe prayer as an obligation. Suppose they would think beyond themselves for a moment. The all-powerful, omnipotent God offers you direct access to the Almighty One, and you treat it as an uncomfortable duty? It is the height of self-absorption to consider it an obligation to spend even a few minutes each day with the Master of the Universe. Prayer is a gift from one who does not need us, but who chooses to accept, empower, and love the insignificant you and me. We should be treating prayer as our most valued gift.
Ways of praying are as vast as there are individuals upon our globe. It is remarkable that the divine One comes to us and accepts our prayers in whatever way we offer them. Yet, God, through Jesus, provides us with an example in “The Lord’s Prayer.” Howard L. Rice, in his helpful book, Reformed Spirituality, describes different forms of prayerful communion with our Triune God. Dr. Rice affirms that “In the Lord’s Prayer, the focus of attention is on God rather than on our own needs.” If all we see in our earthly parent is someone from whom we can sponge money and meet our every need, the relationship is manipulative and not loving or meaningful. The same applies to our relationship with God. God opens the communication to be in a relationship with us, not simply to be a spiritual ATM.
Second, Dr. Rice proclaims, “The primary intent of the prayer is to seek after that which is in accord with God’s will for us rather than to sway God’s will to suit our purposes.” All of us have fallen into the trap of asking God for what we want, rather than trusting God to provide what we need. When our daughter was young, she started saying, “I neeeeeeddddd this or that.” She never wanted everything, but needed everything. As she grew older and received enough parental teasing, she began to joke about it too. When we pray, we are asked to trust God to know what we need and to simply pray for God to act in our lives. Wants will be included, but when they are not there, we cannot claim God didn’t answer prayer. Instead, we can assume that God had another plan, or we shouldn’t desire that particular want. It leaves the control in God’s hands.
Finally, according to Dr. Rice, our “Understanding of the purpose of prayer is not to make God understand us, for God already knows our inmost thoughts, but that we may better understand ourselves.” When we prayerfully speak to God, in conscious and subconscious ways, the Holy Spirit reframes our thoughts, demeanor, and self-image to come in line with Christ’s example. The more we pray, focused on God, the more humble, selfless, and compassionate we become, because the focus and trust are not on us, but on God’s intervention in our lives. Begin offering prayers, with each sentence focused on God, rather than your needs. Notice how you feel over the days and weeks of prayerful practice, as your trust in God’s answers becomes more meaningful than what you would have thought to ask. God knows us better than we know ourselves. Trust!
