My Experience with Prayer

Prayer is a very personal thing.

I have always believed in prayer, but I can’t say that I have been good at it.

Have my prayers always been answered? Actually yes. Have they always been answered the way I asked? No.

My experience with prayer has matured over the years. For most of my life I didn’t really understand prayer until I realized it was communication with God and not just a list of requests. Do I still do a lot of asking? Yes, but I have also worked more at improving my listening.

It’s not easy to listen either. Especially when God doesn’t speak in an audible voice. It requires extreme focus to listen. I’m still not always good at it and I often get it wrong. It is still very difficult to tune out my own voice as being his voice.

I talk to God like I would talk to you. I don’t use fancy religious words or cliches. I also don’t scream and yell at God like in the church I was raised in. Back then it seemed that people who prayed the loudest got God’s attention. I have since learned differently.

I don’t go around laying hands or telling people I will pray for them. If you ask me to pray I will but I am not going to act as if I am some God-given superstar. There are enough of those in the world right now.

Do I get frustrated with praying? Absolutely and probably more than you would think. I don’t always understand God’s timing or why He allows things to go on. I mean, I pray and believe like He told us too, but I also get frustrated when it seems that nothing changes. I wish God would tell us why, but He has his reasons and He's not obligated to my need to know why.

Praying is hard. There is no secret about it. The only way to get good at praying is to pray. I have read many books and listened to sermons about “how to pray” but there is no magic formula.

When do I pray?

I take of advantage of any opportunity that I feel I am able to pray. I pray when I am walking or running errands by myself or when I lie awake early in the morning, or I pray as I go to sleep. I keep the conversation going. There is no one way I can tell you. I just know how it works for me.

Yes, my prayers are always answered but it is either “yes”, “no” or “wait”. I will be honest and tell you that most of the time my prayers aren’t answered immediately and most of the time it isn’t yes.

I told you that my prayers have matured so it isn’t always prayers where I am asking for things. I find myself just generally carrying on a conversation with God. I know how ridiculous that may sound to many of you. That’s okay. I don’t expect you to understand. We all make it the best way we can. I know that there are many crazies out there who tell everything that God supposedly tells them. They use that claim to manipulate people by making them think they are some spiritual celebrity.

I am not a spiritual giant. I don’t claim to be the only person who talks and listens to God. I am doing my best. I get it wrong sometimes, but I don’t give up.

I just want to encourage you to pray and don’t get discouraged with it. You need to do prayer your way. You don’t have to do it like me or like someone else. The important thing is to just pray.

If there is one thing that continue to have to learn about prayer it is to pray, trust God then leave the results to Him. That “leaving the results to Him” part is the one that is the hardest to do. If you are like me, you try to work it out for God. I’m still trying to let go and keep doing the praying and trusting.

Pray, then let it go
Don't try to manipulate or force the outcome,
Just trust God to open the right doors at the right time.