God just wants to talk with us.

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

Today the sun was just rising as I drove to the "Y". The fact that I could see the sun meant that it was not raining. 

The sun is shining today. 

I spent my drive to the "Y" talking with God.

Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor our CEO has mentioned that I tend to drone on. I am glad I can drone to God and He doesn't seem to mind, at least He has never said anything about my droning yet.

I like talking with God, I like to hear what He has to say. When I say I hear from God people say, "You hear God? Are you sure your not just crazy?" I respond, "Well if being crazy means I hear, Love that neighbor that is hard to love. Help that homeless person. I know it is hard but listen more intently to that hurting person. Then I do not mind being crazy."

When I talk to people about prayer I get a variety of responses:

• I pray all the time
• I don't pray
• I don't know how
• I am not any good at it

When I ask if they listen for a response I get:

• What do you mean
• No
• God doesn't talk to me

What I find funny is prayer is just a conversation with God. There isn't a magic formula to prayer, you don't have to have the right words or say certain things. You just need to talk to God like you would to your friend and leave room for God to talk back, just like you would for your friend.

God just wants to talk with us.

Richard Foster says in Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home:

We today yearn for prayer and hide from prayer.  We are attracted to it and repelled by it.  We believe prayer is something we should do, even something we want to do, but it seems like a chasm stands between us and actually praying.  We experience the agony of prayerlessness.[1] 

He goes on to say:

The truth of the matter is, we all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives—altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter.  Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel that good from the bad, the pure from the impure.  But what I have come to see is that God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture.  We do not have to be bright, or pure, or filled with faith, or anything.  That is what grace means, and not only are we saved by grace, we live by it as well.  And we pray by it.[2] 

He finishes with:

What I am trying to say is that God receives us just as we are and accepts our prayers just as they are.  In the same way that a small child cannot draw a bad picture so a child of God cannot offer a bad prayer.[3]

If you already pray, awesome keep it up, if you haven't yet give it a try, you might be surprised how easy it is. 

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger

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[1]Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishing Company, 1992), 7.

[2]Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishing Company, 1992), 8.

[3]Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishing Company, 1992), 8-9.