LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8:1 (NIV)
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
Psalm 100:4 (NIV)
Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
Psalm 62:8 (NIV)
Two weeks ago, I wrote about prayer and promised to share what I've been doing to improve my prayer life. Inspired by ideas from Bill Hybels' book "Too Busy Not to Pray," there are three key steps I've taken that have really made a difference. They may seem elementary to you, but prayer is not exactly rocket science. It's three parts intent and effort, which I touched on previously, and one part approach, which I'll talk about now.
I chose the three scriptures above because each of them illustrate one of the steps I have taken to significantly improve my prayer life in recent days. I have a looooong commute back and forth to work, so my best quality one-on-one time with the Lord is usually in my car, sometimes actually sensing Him in the passenger seat.
The first thing I have done when approaching Him is to acknowledge who He is. He is Lord and He is majestic. I start out my prayer time with this, essentially approaching His throne in humble adoration. An important part of effective communication is to set the tone early, and I believe acknowledging that He is God and I'm not is very important. He loves me and wants to be my friend, but this is not a relationship of equals. I would be pretty lousy at parting large bodies of water or healing the sick, but our Lord can do that in the blink of an eye. I don't think it's a bad idea to keep that in mind.
After I humbly approach God, I then move into thanksgiving. Everyone likes to feel appreciated when they do something for us, and I believe our Lord is no different. After acknowledging who He is, I thank him for using the power at His disposal to provide me with so many blessings, both large and small. I think it is helpful to remember that God doesn't have to lift a finger to do squat for us, but He CHOOSES to because He loves us so much. Just typing those words makes me want to shout out praise to Him! Getting in the habit of doing that in our regular prayer time will just move us closer to Him and add a depth and intimacy that can knock our socks off.
Finally, it's time to open up to my Heavenly Father and tell Him what's bothering me. He is my refuge (yours too) and is waiting, hoping, that I turn to Him and pour my heart out. I'm not giving Him a news flash; he knows what I am experiencing and feeling. That act of sharing with the Lord deepens our relationship with Him. Just like with our earthly friends, we know a relationship has gone to a new level when someone really opens up and shares their deep feelings, their dark secrets, with us. God is the most worthy of our trust and has invited us to share anything and everything with Him. If it's confessing sin, he can cleanse us. If it's a need, either for ourselves or someone we know, we are demonstrating trust in the Lord by approaching Him, and He is then more likely to trust us by sharing wisdom, discernment, and further blessings.
I can testify to that last point from very recent experience. I spent several blocks of time in our designated ministry area (a great thing if you can set space aside in your home) last weekend seeking guidance and wisdom from God, and He delivered big time. Sometimes he gave me a thought directly, other times he pointed me to one of the books in our library to find something. It was an awesome experience, and one that I believe each one of us can have. I'm sure some of you have already been blessed with something like that.
There are many, many ways to enter into prayer and make a strong connection with God, and some of them may look quite different from the three points I've laid out here. If you're not enjoying an active prayer life, though, I offer this approach for you to try out.
One thing is certain; God will bless the efforts we make to reach out to Him.
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