I have a problem with prayer.
Not with prayer, but with the way that I personally pray.
I talk too much.
Anybody with me?
Okay, here’s the thing. I am very good at charging in and chattering like crazy, listing before God all of the things that my friends and my family need, the hurts and the triumphs… I can do that while I’m on the treadmill or while I’m driving or straightening the house. I pray a lot. And I firmly believe that God loves it when we pray a lot… if we mean it and it’s not just words to fill the space. I’ve been guilty of that too.
The problem is, I don’t listen a lot. And that’s not good. Rarely do I sit still and just let God speak. Rarely do I let myself be quiet and listen for Him. Maybe it’s because I’m deep down afraid He won’t say anything? Or I’ll get it all wrong? Or He’ll ask me to change something? I’m not sure. But what I am sure of is that I don’t sit still enough.
In a world that’s growing increasingly crazier and getting increasingly louder, it gets increasingly hard to recognize His voice when we hear it. I’ve locked myself in some battles before because I missed hearing God’s voice, because I thought I was hearing it when, really, it was mine all along. Easy to confuse them when all I ever hear in prayer is my own. I know some very good Christian men and women who are in a heated battle right now because they all think they have God’s answer, only they are hearing opposite answers. It makes me wonder if they’re getting confused voices the same way I do.
Who are we really listening to? Ourselves? The world? The TV? The radio? God?
Isn’t it time we sat still and figured that out?
-JB