What If I Just Yell?

Photo: StockSnap @pixabay.com 

“Lord, teach us to pray...”—Luke 11:1

What follows was originally written a couple of years ago, yet it could very well have been written a couple of days ago. The stuff near the end that happened back then is eerily similar to what happened this week when a country that may not have been sure about prayer stopped what they were doing anyway to lift Up a young football player fighting for his life. The organic power of it all, without formality or pretense, and the amazing encouragement to millions that has come from it, seem to be on repeat as if Heaven itself is waiting, longing for us to 'get it.' Selah...

Sometimes, like the persistent widow, prayer can be fervent and repetitive in seeking resolution to a really difficult situation. It can go on for days, weeks, and longer, and while there are often increasing glimmers of hope, it can also seem the answer is taking forever. And you know that you know that God is in it. These are the prayer situations when, as in my life, two wise and respected men of God (unbeknownst that the other had said the same thing) encouraged, “This story is not over!” Keep at it. God is listening, God is at work. Don’t quit.

This is how you pray.

But then, Jesus lays out the “how to” blueprint for His disciples: “Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, Your name is holy. May Your holy nation come. What You want done, may it be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the bread we need today. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. ‘Do not let us be tempted, but keep us from sin. Your nation is holy. You have power and shining-greatness forever. Let it be so.’" In other words, keep it simple, don’t make a show of it, and don’t just “say” the Lord’s Prayer either, but focus in on the multiple facets of who God is in your daily routine.

Ok, so that's how you pray.

But then, there's Anna the prophetess, the widow who spent day and night serving God by praying and fasting, the one who had been so in tune with the things of God that when she heard Simeon speak into the lives of Mary and Joseph about their newborn Son—“My eyes have seen the One Who will save men from the punishment of their sins.”—she knew it was true. And so she went and told everyone who was looking for some good news that Jesus was the One they had long been waiting for.

In other words, it’s good to dedicate your life to prayer so that you can get God’s heart on a matter, and know that you know that you know, so you can tell the world the Good News. Who wouldn't want that?

And so, if you’re really serious about prayer, that's how you do it.

Except, there was that time when a situation comes out of nowhere that punches you in the gut with its potential ramifications. Everything within you says, “This is not going to end well.” Words are few. Thoughts are incoherent and spinning. There is no persistent praying, model praying, or dedicated praying. Not even close. Only a gasp, a yell of "God, help, please!" and an inner resolve that "God’s got this"—but that’s about it.

And a couple of days later, again out of nowhere, a dramatic, table-turning answer that no scheme, great idea, or modern technology could ever pull off. The only explanation: God heard, and God answered....  

After all these years in the Walk, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t know how prayer works. Just that it does. Prayer has no neat and tidy confining boxes because God in His great goodness doesn't have any either. And maybe, in all kinds of prayer, all of Heaven keeps cheering us on to stop sweating the method and simply cultivate this for every situation, big or small, in our everyday life...

“Prayer is what happens when the soul cries out to its Maker, and no matter what the words, no matter what the feelings, no matter what the method, when it happens, it is prayer.”

—Steve Brown, “Approaching God”