A journal entry from  09 28 2015

I ran across a quote from a 19th Century Catholic priest who said, “Pray as you can, not as you can’t”. It reminded me of a couple of things. First, because prayer is one of the things that God uses to change us, we can’t wait until we’ve got it right to pray. I listen to prayer warriors who can bring me to tears with their wonderful prayers and once thought that I couldn’t pray until I was able to do like that. However, God’s grace is absolutely sufficient to cover us in prayer. We can be sure that in this world, we will never be able to master prayer. Second, we can’t wait until our motives are right, or we would never pray. We are a tangled mass of motives, both good and bad.

It is much like children coming to their father with crazy requests. Fathers want to hear from their children, even if we don’t make sense all the time. Fathers are simply happy that their children come, mixed motives and all. I can remember thinking that God wouldn’t want to hear from me because I might say something that had the wrong motive and because He is God, He would know it.

The prayers in scripture are mostly simple prayers – heartfelt and earnest, exposing deep desires. It is only when we do pray simply that God can begin to work in us. He wants to hear about our day, the things that encouraged us, the problems that hurt us, the family member that is lost, the disappointments that we feel, the longings to be closer to Him. C.S. Lewis once said, “lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.” Simple prayers should be genuine prayers – telling God like it is. Then as we listen to Him, he can comfort, counsel, encourage, and grow us.

Always praying for the glory of God,