10 Reasons to Pray

From time to time, I’ve written posts that ask questions about prayer. I thought that for once I’d set aside my reflexively speculative turn of mind, and write an unabashedly affirmative and practical post about it. So without further ado, and from the heart, here goes:

1. Prayer creates an opening for God to speak. How many times in prayer has my train of thought been interrupted, intruded upon, by a new thought, one that has never occurred to me before, coming from left field?
2. Prayer releases hidden things from underground springs. Case in point: in preparation for a family member’s surgery this week, my whole family converged at our house to pray together about it. We were fine, talking and laughing, and we’d had a month to pray independently about the surgery. But the minute we bowed our heads together, we felt like weeping. Something deep down was released.
3. Prayer brings peace. It reaffirms that all the questionables and scattered pieces of the picture are comprehended by one loving mind.
4. Prayer brings clarity. Seldom do I get up from praying without that wrung-out, refreshed, more composed feeling that is to the soul what a good night’s sleep is to the body.
5. Prayer reminds me of my smallness. Especially when I don’t have any “suggestions” for God — you know, multiple choice answers like we’re accustomed to giving him: “Lord, here’s the problem. I pray that you would do this; or this; or maybe this.” My best prayer sessions may begin in this frame of mind, but discard it by the end, transformed into simply, “Lord, here’s the problem. Please help. I have no clue. Open my eyes to see you at work.” Seeing my smallness is the beginning of spiritual health.
6. Prayer makes me more compassionate. Interceding for others, I become more aware of them as people in their own right, independent of whatever significance they may have to me personally. It makes me more forgiving.
7. Prayer opens my eyes to the eternal significance of the mundane.
8. Prayer opens my ears to the “still small voice” that waits till the last moment before whispering, “Go this way,” or “Hold your tongue; that doesn’t need to be said,” or “Here’s an idea:”
9. Prayer increases my capacity for God’s love, received and expressed, because it reminds me of his perspective on things and people — including myself.
10. Prayer satisfies my deepest need — for God himself, as George MacDonald says. It reminds me that it’s less about receiving answers, but about receiving the communion and friendship from God that he designed us for. It’s not that this replaces answers. It just restores them to their proper, secondary place.

Lord, teach us to pray. Not how to pray, or what to say, or what rules to follow, but just  to pray.