SPEAKING TO THE SOUL

I cried out to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy mountain.
Psalm 3:4 NLT

We can theorise about God and enjoy an interesting dialogue or sermon, but the reality of daily living is where we discover the reality of whether God is truth.

While I pray to God for help and protection, he can seem distant, as my current circumstances seek to overwhelm me. I am very focused on my own emotional and psychological needs and have little need of a theological explanation of the character and nature of God. Words will not soothe my anxieties or meet my felt needs, I need action and change. I need God.

Jayne lives with a chronic pain condition. On rare occasions I have observed her writhe with pain on the floor. Her cry is for God and for pain relief. My cry arises from impotence to help and a desire for pain relief for Jayne. Prayer can create a space in which we each individually and then together draw breath, reorientate ourselves and redirect our gaze on God.

We have both learned the benefits of breath prayer, and using the Jesus Prayer, to manage the situation; Jayne her pain, me my sense of impotence and frustration. We do not pray it as a mantra in an attempt to soothe ourselves. We employ it as we do throughout our day as a means to reorientate ourselves within God’s call and his purpose for our lives today.

Too often prayer is picked up vigorously at moments when we are most under pressure. While invaluable at one level, we have no prayer knowledge to fall back upon and little practice to draw from. We best navigate life’s big personal challenges from a place of regular prayer so that once the intensity of our warfare, which is spiritual, increases we find that familiar path within the extremities of our circumstances.

Your life will face many serious challenges and at such moments you will need to draw upon that habit of prayer and the level of intimacy you have built with God to endure effectively.

QUESTION

How is your prayer life right now?

PRAYER

Thank you for the secret place where I can develop and establish intimacy with you. Be with me today, whatever the next hours bring.