Eternal Approach

One of the problems I often face in prayer is that I am concerned with saying the right thing. That I am providing all the information God needs to know. Not forgetting any crucial point. And being careful not to mess up in the way and manner I ask for stuff.

I worry that I will not cover all the details properly. That something vital will be left out.

Recently, I was watching an old episode from the X-Files. Actually one of my favorite ones. It was about a genie, like the one from Aladdin’s lamp. The genie would grant 3 wishes. But you had to be careful. The manifestation of a wish could be disastrous. It was about not providing enough information, not asking in a very specific way. You needed to be really careful or things could go very badly. REALLY BAD.

Well, I won’t spoil the episode for you. It is well worth your time. But I have been thinking that I worry about prayer in the same way that one might think about genies and wishes.

The sad fact is that we do not trust God to understand the needs of our spirit. And, in my case, it is as if I am going to fail to provide some new information He doesn’t already know.

I really wonder about prayer sometimes. Do we really understand what we are doing? Do we understand Whom we are talking to? We use a lot of vain repetition that I think would put any normal person to sleep. He probably desires that I just talk with Him. Not to keep worrying about covering every detail I think has to be handled.

This is just a short post and I am not going into a whole lecture on prayer. I just want to stress something.

We have to get over trying to be in control. We have to trust that God is there and that He has all our vital stuff under control.

Yes, we need to pray without ceasing. But this may be no more than saying, “Lord, you just saw what happened. And you know all the details. Please, work this out.”

More than anything, He wants our fellowship. He wants us to share everything with Him.

There are some verses dealing with how the Spirit searches out the deep things of God. And how the Lord knows the mind of the Spirit and makes intercession for us according to the will of God. That is really the answer to this.

And that sometimes there are only groanings deep within that cannot be expressed. He knows all these. And He takes these and talks to the Father on our behalf with every one of those sighs, groanings, fears, hopes and tears.

Hope that helps a little.