Random House Webster’s College Dictionary defines prayer as a Devout petition or spiritual communication. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, would define the popular understanding of prayer as primarily that of petition. However, in a broader general sense any raising of the heart to God. Richard Foster, would say that prayer is a response to an overwhelming love. Donald Spoto writes, faith itself is the soul’s country, and prayer is its native language. In the book Primary Speech: a Psychology of Prayer, the Ulanov’s write that to pray is to listen and to hear this self who is speaking. In prayer we say who in fact we are, not who we should be or who we want to be. The Ulanov’s go on to say that God hears all the voices that speak out of us.
We could say that prayer at its most basic level is as the dictionary describes, spiritual communication. We could also say that for most of us prayer is an act of petitioning God either for ourselves or on the behalf of others. It seems that from all that I have read and from personal experience, that the desire to pray is something put into us from the beginning of creation. We were meant to communicate with our maker. Even in our sinful state we still cry out to him believing and expecting to be heard. It is like what C.S Lewis writes about in “Letters to Malcolm”, he writes that the prayer proceeding all prayer is may it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real thou that I speak to”.
It would seem that our very being, the real person inside us, the one that God created us to be cries out, and then the all knowing God of the universe hears that true cry. In spite of the masking and hiding we attempt, he sees and hears the true us, warts and all. How many times in the process of prayer do thoughts come across our minds that we would normally be able to control or not consider? Thoughts of our real selves, the people that we don’t want to see or have anyone else sees either. And yet God hears us, loves us and listens to us.
To this point prayer seems to be kind of one sided. We are doing all the talking, or are we? How about the Spirit that groans within us when we do not know how to pray. What about our listening to him, and our response to him?
Obviously, when we begin to unpack what prayer is, so many facets are revealed. I think for myself though that prayer is not only an opportunity to communicate with God or commune with him. It is a chance for him to reveal more and more about myself. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It is an opportunity for me to acknowledge those things that he reveals and to have him heal them, remove them, or for me to lay them at his feet. In this process I will get to know more and more about him- the holy, loving, and merciful one. This process can occur each time I pray whether in petition, thanksgiving, or in silence waiting to hear him speak to me.
What is prayer to you? How would you personally define it? Would you be willing to share any thoughts?
Picture: Prayer Booth by dprevite
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