I don’t know about you, but sometimes I struggle to pray. I am easily distracted, also known as a person with attention deficit disorder. I also have four children ranging between the ages of 4 to 11 who take up about 98% of my time.
I’m also a perfectionist. It helps control my ADD tendencies with lists, timelines, and order. All of this to say, prayer is hard for me.
The perfectionist in me says it has to be done properly. Properly to me is that of Matthew 6:6 ~ But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
However, this is not a season in my life where I can sneak away in secret to pray.
The perfectionist in me also says my prayer needs to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It needs to start and end properly. It kind of became an OCD thing where I’d continuously restart the same prayer unable to move on until I completed it. Even if that one prayer took me all day.
Realistically, the Lord does not care. He just wants us in communication with Him. He wants us to tell him everything, to keep the line open. Even when we don’t fully know how to communicate.
This is shown to us in Romans 8:26-27 ~ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
Time and time again the important things of prayer that the bible directs us to are these key things:
Pray from a place of thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6, Colossians 4:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) to name a few.
But in everything (Philippians 4:6) continue steadfastly (Colossians 4:2) pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Lay down, set aside, the things that may be holding you back from praying.
Your schedule is too full, your brain is not in a place to focus, you’re juggling too many other things, and the time you have designated to pray keeps getting pushed aside…
The Lord comes to us wherever we are. He asks that we come to him from a place of thanksgiving and He asks that we come to him often, or in everything.
Therefore my outlook on prayer has changed greatly over the years. I tend to give thanks in all things, even the struggles, because it means we are alive, and that God is with us. It’s easy to give thanks when things are going great, it’s harder to give thanks when they are not. Our daughter frequents the ER. In her short 7 years of life, she has been in the ER 5 times, and that’s if I’m counting correctly. She has 3 different specialists, and we are constantly finding “new things” that her body shows us as she ages, things that all stem from a virus she had at 9 months old. It can be challenging, it’s financially draining, and it could take a toll on our spirits. Yet, we are thankful.
Sure it’s left behind some challenges that surface every few years, things that bring us to slightly alter small things in our lives. Yet, God has led us through every hurdle, and we are grateful He has guided us. That is something to celebrate and praise! To rejoice in prayers of thanksgiving for a loving God who is with you through it all.
My outlook on prayer has also changed in the aspect of how I meet the Lord in prayer.
I just dive in. No matter where or when in the day, my prayers are most often short and sweet, 1-3 sentences, most often about the exact thing I’m entering into. Whether it’s the school day, a break, a conversation with one of our kids, a neighbor, or a discussion with my husband…I try hard to bring the Lord into every switch in the schedule. It can be as little as, “Lord listen to my heart during this break, redirect anything that may be leaning towards bitterness.” Or something as simple as, “Lord, guide our conversation over Math so that it goes smoothly and is operated under your grace instead of my lack thereof.”
When I invite the Lord into it all, suddenly my prayer life goes from non-existent to thriving. That’s because I’m no longer hung up on “how to pray properly”, and instead I’m in constant communication. And that…leads to a stronger connection with my Lord.
