Rev. Ben Black shares a thought about prayer.

Praying Unfiltered

It is one of the tragedies of religion that prayer has been made into a chore, a discipline, an obligation - something devout people are supposed to do. Great harm has been done to many of us trained to believe prayer is a thing that needs study and practice, a discipline with stages and levels, special words and formulas. But right and wrong, correct and incorrect, are not categories for prayer. Too many churches and pastors give the impression that real prayer requires special training. These misguided teachings make prayer feel formal and awkward, like reading a speech to someone you're madly in love with.

Prayer isn't a performance. Prayer isn't a ladder to God. There are no essential steps in prayer because there is nowhere to go in prayer. There is nothing you need to accomplish in prayer. Prayer is simply remembering you already have all you need. The surprise of prayer - and the surprise never gets old- is that God is already waiting, listening, and cradling the deepest depths of who you are...

In prayer, we enter into the relationship we already have with God. In prayer, we give attention to the intimate, sacred communication that is ongoing with us. Prayer is not something we make up; it is something we discover, something we allow, something we yield to...

Imagine you are sitting next to someone who is deeply in love with you. What is it you would say to such a person? Would you speak your secret hopes and fantasies? Would you expose your deepest hurt and shame? Would you ask for help? Would you listen, or talk, or just sit quietly enjoying the warmth of your loved one's gaze? These are the kinds of questions prayer invites.

Recently, a pastor friend of mine turned my attention to these words from the book Wonder, Fear, and Longing: a Book of Prayers by Mike Raconelli. These words resounded with me because prayer, at its core is about relationship with God. The problem that I have run into in my life and possibly in yours is we can get so focused on 'doing' prayer that we cease to actually pray! I have found myself in various seasons getting more pre-occupied about how my prayers "sound", even the ones that never leave my lips, that I forget who I am praying to. Matthew 6:8 tells us that God knows our prayers even before we ask it of Him. We are struggling for the 'right words' while God already knows what is on our heart. Instead, pour yourself into prayer. Don't censor yourself. A practice I have found very helpful is praying through the Psalms. There are things in those prayers most of us wouldn't dream of bringing to God- how often do we pray for God to punish our enemies and give to them what they deserve? How often do we pray "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me" as in Psalm 27? My hunch is, we have felt both of these impulses in our lives when we are trying to make sense of our cruel world and the difficulties of life. I am not advocating you pray curses on your enemies- Jesus commands the opposite in Matthew 5:44 but what we can do is lift up ALL our afflictions, however bold and raw they might be to God- because, well, He already knows. God knows your struggles. God knows your pain. God is listening. You might even find that by praying unfiltered, without censoring yourself, that God will reveal Himself to you in new ways. Through these honest prayers God will break down the barriers and open a new world that is life grounded in the relationship that comes through re-discovering prayer.

Rev. Ben Black, pastor of Forest Hills Presbyterian Church

(Sunday Reflections for August 25, 2013)