Have you ever prayed? I know most everyone I have ever known has prayed at one time or another. What I mean is have you ever really prayed? Prayer has never been one of my best subjects in my journey. I guess I just always feel that God s there watching over me. I suppose it all depends on what you think of as prayer. Let me try to get a an idea of what I see as prayer. There is prayer like we all did when we were little with the folded hands. Then there is prayers like we say in church and blessings around the tables before we eat. What makes any prayer different from another? I see prayer on a sliding scale of how close is God? A child might see God as being high upon a cloud looking down on his children. In church it seems as though prayers are voice messages that we leave on God’s answering machine…..beep…Hello you have reached heaven but I can’t answer your prayer right now, but if you leave your soul and number, I’ll get back to you as soon as possible… Then there are the prayers when God picks up while you are leaving the message and is as close as a spouse responding to an emergency. He comes and walks the halls while your loved one in surgery or consoles you while you are waiting for the phone call to let you know they are all right with a rub of your back or a hug.
Have you ever prayed like you were talking to the only person you knew who would listen? Something happens and you can’t tell another living soul. Maybe it is a pain you felt that you can’t live with or just a fear that no one else can see. Do you pray to God as though he was the one who totally gets you like no one else and always seems to say the right thing to make you feel better? Or do you pray to God like you just ran into an old friend you haven’t seen in a while and you are not sure you want Him to know what just happened in your life cause He might not approve and you’d be totally embarrassed if He knew? Maybe you don’t pray at all and just go through the motions when everyone is looking, because God feels so far away that you begin to doubt if He was ever listening at all.
I have been just about everywhere on that sliding scale you could imagine. It all comes down to how you feel at the time. Most of the time no matter how you feel you know God is there with you one way or another and He can see you right there where He is and feel you close enough to feel your pain or your joy. God feels you with His love for you. He speaks to you with a ceaseless prayer just waiting for the moment you begin to listen. He is there listening to your prayer with no need to shout, no need to leave a message, and no need to explain what just happened in your life. You are never alone and never without someone who cares enough to listen with a hug.
Have you ever prayed?
