On the subject of... Prayer

Last night my dear friend and I were discussing the nature of prayer and our own struggles with ‘hearing’ God’s voice. We both confessed that often times we get frustrated by the fact that at times while praying it feels like we are talking to air. While we both recognize that God IS present in our lives and present during our times of prayer, sometimes he feels very absent. While talking about this we concluded that often times we are hoping for some sort of ‘feeling’ to decend upon us in which God will reveal to us his presence in a tangible form. I know for myself that I often crave that transcendental feeling of peace, or joy, or forgiveness or the like. When such feelings fail to manifest, I am often left feeling my prayer was some how not successful or as feeling like God didn’t hear me as clearly that time. While I don’t expect a booming voice from heaven telling me what to do or that He IS there listening to my prayers, I do, I admit, often try to work up in myself some sort of emotion or feeling or sensation that will lead me to believe my prayer has been more of a success.
Upon discussing this, I was reminded of a quote from The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis in which the demon Screwtape writes to his demonic subject Wormwood about the topic of human prayer. In it he states:

Whenever they are attending to the Enemy Himself we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them from doing so. The simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him towards themselves. Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills. When they meant to ask Him for charity, let them, instead, start tyring to manufacture charitable feelings for themselves and not notice that this is what they are doing. When they meant to pray for courage, let them really be trying to feel brave. When they say they are praying for forgiveness, let them be trying to feel forgiven. Teach them to esitmate the value of each praer by their success in producing the desired feeling…

We came to realize that feelings can not be the goal of prayer, nor should our prayers be attempts to reach some sort of ethereal ‘high’. While many times God DOES grace us with feelings of peace, joy, conviction, and forgiveness, we cannot judge the ‘success’ of our prayers by what WE get out of them. Prayer is, after all, a means for us to communicate to God to recognize his presence and to glorify him. Just because we do not always feel God’s presence there, does not mean he seizes to be present.

In our discusssion we were reminded, rather foolishly, of our earlier study of the Isrealite nations and how they often went by for years without a sign or word from God to acknowledge his presence, and yet, they believed that he WAS there and that He WAS listening and that he WAS faithful. The Isrealites merely pointed to the past and the many ways he had blessed them and been faithful to them throughout history, and that was enough for them. They were able to recognize that God’s silence was not indicative of his absence. God was clearly present, they merely needed to wait upon Him.

We can clearly learn from the lesson of the Isrealites (though I suggest ignoring the whole turning away from God to idols bit). Clearly God IS present in our lives and IS answering prayers. This is plainly evident as we look back on our lives and the many ways in which God has guided us to the places we are today. I know in my life that it is abundantly clear that God is faithful and does answer prayers. While I don’t always feel like God is there nor feel like He is hearing me, and while I often don’t feel like I am receiving any direct answers as to the next step in my life, I can see, in looking at the course of greater history and my own life history, that God IS present and He IS directing my path. As Jenny so aptly quoted Dr. Phil: "the best predictor of future behavior is past behaviour." That is to say, that we can be confident that God is present and faithful in our present lives because he has been present and faithful in our past. Thus, when in prayer, we need simply remind ourselves that we are not simply quoting some fancy monologue, but that we are in the presence of an Almighty and Holy God who cares and who is listening to our prayers, regardless if we feel his presence or not. As we continue to remind ourselves of this, and as we continue dialogue with our heavenly father, we will find that he IS answering and He IS present and sometimes, every so often, he will even allow us to see a glimpse of that presence in tangible forms…

"But I trust in your unfailng love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me." – Psalm 13:6

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" – Hebrews 13:8

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" – James 5:16b