Inside Out
Prayer.
Wait! Don’t click away just yet!
I know. This is a topic that meets many of us in many different areas. Some of us, when we think of prayer, think of this exhilarating experience in which our souls commune in conversation with our Creator. Wonderful hours on end, sitting in and soaking up God’s presence. Pouring out our hearts to God and having Him fill up our hearts with His goodness and grace. Maybe you think of wonderful moments sitting in silence sipping your coffee whispering your words of worship and adoration. Sounds awesome.
Or maybe you’re like the rest of us, who, when we think about prayer, try really hard to think about something else. Not because we think it is unimportant, or unnecessary. Truthfully, deep down we wish we could do it better. We wish we knew how to express ourselves to God better. Even more, we wish we knew how to better tune in to what He is telling us! I know I do.
For many of us, frustration with prayer makes us want to give up on it. We get frustrated because we go to church or to our small group and hear over and over how one of the essential ways to grow and develop our relationship with God, is by doing something we have such a hard time doing. And even more frustrating, is that everyone else makes it seem like it should be so easy.
Some tells you, “Just talk to God like you would a person.”
So you try that. “Ok, here’s goes nothing…Hello, God? How art Thou?” (Because that’s definitely how we talk to people.)
We get frustrated because we try and set aside some time to pray, and then our mind begins racing with all of these other things we think we should be doing instead. Or things we forgot to do earlier.
“Heavenly Father, I thank You for this day. For Your power in my life. Speaking of which…did I pay my power bill?”
“Heavenly Father, Your grace has saved me from the garbage of my sin…GARBAGE! I forgot to take the garbage to the curb! Be right back God!”
“Father, thank You for helping me with temptation and it’s mind games…Games…I wonder who won the game last night.”
You get the idea.
But I bet for most of us, the biggest frustration in the times we’re praying is when we don’t feel like we get anything back. The times we feel like our prayers are hitting the ceiling, or just falling out of our mouths onto the floor. The times we feel like we’re not getting through to God and we’re not getting anything from Him.
It’s frustrating.
It’s no wonder we feel discouraged when distractions or silence make prayer feel less like a lifeline and more like a chore. Ever been there?
That’s what I want to discuss in these next few posts. A series of posts I’m titling “Inside Out,” because that is the exact manner I’ve found prayer to work.
So often we get frustrated because we try to pray and our minds are instantly filled with all these problems we’ve failed to solve––all these problems we feel we should be solving instead of praying. But what we’re going to see over these next few posts, is the inescapable truth that prayer is actually where the problem solving can begin! In fact, the thesis of what we’re going to explore through these next few posts is this:
We are best equipped to handle outside problems through inside preparations.
The problems in your marriage. The difficulty with your kids. The co-worker who’s making your life miserable. The boss who seems to have it in for you. The doctor’s visit that didn’t go as you expected. The unexpected loss of a job.
Read this slowly: we are best equipped to handle outside problems through inside preparations. Through the preparation of our hearts and minds and souls. We best handle struggles on the outside when we work to be strong on the inside.
Over the next few posts, we’ll uncover practical ways to approach prayer––not just as spiritual duty, but as the key to unlocking God’s peace and power in the chaos of life. How to approach prayer when it feels hard––from overcoming distractions to understanding what it really means to connect with God. And, using Jesus as our example, we’ll see that:
Prayer is what provides the inside preparation that empowers us to face the most challenging outside problems.
Oh yeah. It’s that important. Too important to just give up on out of frustration. It’s just like anything else worthwhile. It takes time, diligence, and most of all…patience. And I promise you, if you’ll be patient, you’ll experience the payoff.
So, you ready to discover how prayer can give you the inner strength to face to face all those outer problems?
First things first, we need to understand that prayer isn’t powerful because of our words––it’s powerful because of the One Who hears them. The One our prayer connects us with. Our Heavenly Father. So do yourself a favor and take the pressure off of yourself. Prayer isn’t a performance. It’s a conversation. When we approach prayer with this understanding, we discover something incredible. It’s not about doing it perfectly, but about connecting authentically. And through this authentic connection with God we’ll find our inner strength beginning to grow.
The Apostle Paul writes:
“I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources [the Father] will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” - Ephesians 3:16-19 NLT
I want to encourage you this week to take just five minutes each day to sit in God’s presence––no agenda, maybe even no words. Just trust. Let Him start the work of strengthening you from the inside out.
Til next time…