Still Learning to Pray

2/25/2021

Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

There is not a time that I can remember when I did not pray. When I was little, my mother taught me a very simple prayer to say before going to sleep. It goes, “God bless mommy and daddy, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, and make me a good girl.” I love the innocence of that prayer, but also the profound way that asks for intercession, and for my own little soul. As I got older, I learned the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Act of Contrition, but my sweet little prayer never left me. Through this simplicity, my mother taught me to pray for others, and that has remained my focus for prayer all of my life. Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” I am so grateful to my parents for bringing me to church and teaching me about faith.

The older I got, the more informal my prayers became. I would sit and talk to God, but I still had timeframes around those conversations. Usually I would pray when I first woke up, before falling asleep, or at church related functions, but rarely any other time. For most of my life, I was also VERY TIMID about praying out loud in front of anyone, including my husband. Maybe terrified would be a more accurate word. Every time I heard someone come before God in corporate prayer, they always seemed to speak so powerfully and eloquently, and I just could not understand how they did it. Nope, I would let others boldly go there and I would bow my head, clasp my hands, and raise my petitions and praises silently. This was my way until quite recently.

Now I could tell you this comes with age or with Christian maturity, but I don’t think that is true. I know many very mature and strong believers who still struggle in this area. I think for me, this change happened when I opened myself up more to God’s leading and meditating on prayers from the Bible. During this time, I was seeking to be a more effective proclaimer of the good news, because I was feeling led to do so. What came was a lightbulb moment of clarity from God. I never had to be uncomfortable or concerned about offering prayer right in the moment for others, because if I am fully trusting Jesus, the Holy Spirit would guide my words. I will admit the first couple of times I asked someone if they wanted me to pray, my knees were knocking and I would not remember a thing I said, yet the person always seemed to be blessed. This feeling, of course, had nothing to do with me and EVERYTHING to do with Jesus. To God be the glory.

I still miss opportunities to lift others up in the moment, but I am always asking God to make me more sensitive to those times. An anointed time of prayer with others, whether it is me praying for someone else or someone else praying for me, is one of the most profound and miraculous experiences of my Christian walk. And it all started with a simple child’s prayer taught to her by her faithful mother. Amazing grace.