DON'T OVERTHINK PRAYER

Oftentimes I think we make prayer much more complicated than it really is.

Prayer as I understand it is simply talking to our father God, falling in sync with the Holy Spirit and relinquishing control of our lives to His Sovereignty. Faith in Him in prayer is the assurance that He can turn natural into supernatural and make a way when there seems to be no way. The release of things that are out of our control is an expression of worship to Him because He is waiting for us to depend on Him. And being in constant fellowship with Him is His desire.

If something happens during my day that is confusing and stressful, I don’t want to have to wait until the next morning at my 7:00 a.m. prayer time to take it to Him. I want to be able to call upon Him at that moment... get the Holy Spirit working on my behalf immediately!

Or if I’m impressed to pray for someone, I want to be able to enter into the spirit of intercession at that time. There could be an immediate need and the urgency doesn’t allow waiting until a scheduled time to pray about it.

Yes, it is vital to have a time set aside daily to present requests, express love and praise to Him, and study His Word, but there is amazing peace that comes when I LIVE in His Presence. My relationship is not limited to the worship service on Sunday, or my quiet time in scheduled prayer - it is a 24/7 covenant relationship. There is so much strength knowing that He can handle all my problems and I don’t have to fight by myself. Any time I am overwhelmed and only able to call the name of Jesus as tears flow and anxiety strips my words, I can feel Him near, thankful that He knows my heart!

“Streams in the Desert” daily devotional book has been an inspiring book for this season in my life! The teachers “of old” really have great wisdom to share. I keep going back to the one for October 31 about prayer because it expresses my heart on the subject.

“It is not necessary to be always speaking to God or always hearing from God to have communion with Him. There is an articulate fellowship more sweet than words. The little child can sit all day long beside its busy mother and, although few words are spoken on either side, and both are busy, the one at his absorbing play, the other at her engrossing work, yet both are in perfect fellowship. He knows that she is there and she knows that he is all right. So the saint and the Savior can go on for hours in the silent fellowship of love, and he be busy about the most common things, and yet conscious that every little thing he does is touched with the complexion of His presence and the sense of His approval and blessing.And then, when pressed with burdens and trouble too complicated to put into words and too mysterious to tell or understand, how sweet it is to fall back into His blessed arms and just sob out the sorrow that we cannot speak!”

Romans 8:26-27 (NIV)

"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."