Dear God, how was your day?

Part two – by Brian

I’ve been thinking about how we grow and maintain our relationship with God. I’ve been praying about it and asking God to show me how I can grow in my relationship with him and I had a moment of revelation when Anna prayed at dinner the other night. She wanted to pray about Pepper (Rachel’s parents dog) who had just died. So starts out praying and talking to God just like she would to me, “Dear God, I really miss Pepper. She was the best dog at Grandpa and Grandmas because she didn’t bark and she was my favorite. I hope I get to see her when I get to heaven.” She was just telling God how she felt about Pepper and talking like God is a normal person. I don’t pray like that. I’m usually thanking God for this and asking Him for that and confessing the other thing. I suppose I pray more “religiously” than Anna does. But she was having a conversation and conversation, or communication is the foundation of any relationship. The idea that knocked me over was that God knows everything she just told Him, but I think He wanted to hear her say it anyway. He wanted to hear how she felt about Pepper. That is how their relationship works. And I got to wondering, could I pray like that and what would it do to my relationship with God?

A couple verses I know regarding prayer:

Matthew 6

5And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

 6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

 7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

 8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

 9After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

 10Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

 11Give us this day our daily bread.

 12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

 13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

I Thessalonians 5:17

Pray without ceasing.

If we are to pray without ceasing but not to use vain repetition then we are going to have to do a lot of talking. I tend to run out of things to say to God after about 2 minutes. But I were to leave behind my religious ideas about prayer and let it be a continual conversation I suppose I would have a lot more to talk about. I also suppose I would be more motivated to abandon the thoughts that I don’t want to share with God. If I was truly open and talking to Him all the time it would be much harder to be tempted by ungodly thoughts.

When I get home from work, Rachel and I have our little routine: “How was your day?” “It was fine.” Such and such happened that was funny or interesting. “How was yours?” “The kids were good today.” This routine dialog is necessary, it’s got the facts we need to know to be current with each others lives. But if don’t move beyond it to: “What have you been thinking about? How are you feeling? What plans are you making? What do you need? What do you hope?” If we don’t get deeper then we both start to feel disconnected. I think that having regular normal things to pray is a good thing. I even think that memorized prayers that are always the same is ok. But if that’s all my prayer life is, then I’m never going deeper with God and I’m going to drift away from Him. I speak from experience. God is our Creator, our Father, and (I have a hard time with this analogy) our Husband. Those names all speak of intimacy. Jesus said we grow by being connected to Him. I want to be connected to Him and I want to be intimate with Him. You would think that if there was anyone I could feel safe being close to it would be my Savior. Since He tore down the veil the only thing that keeps my from being close to Him is my own sin and stubbornness.

That’s all for now. back to our regularly scheduled family updates…