by Jerry Senn
In prayer we are deliberately seeking to improve our conscious contact with God by talking directly with him. There is a wonderful invitation to prayer in the New Testament that gives us indisputable guidance. “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
When is “our time of need?” Now! Each day brings enough trouble of its own, so find a place to pray for a few minutes where you won’t be interrupted.
We “approach God’s throne.” Who’s sitting on God’s throne? That would be God. Approaching God’s throne is something we do with our minds, placing God in our thoughts. So we don’t start by thinking about our problems. We think about God. We set before our mind three “Father facts” that Jesus taught:
God is able. He was able to deliver Israel from Pharaoh, David from Goliath, Daniel from the lions, Esther from Haman, and Jesus from the tomb.
God is here. God is closer than we think. People sometimes feel like their prayers never get beyond the ceiling, but that is not a problem. God is below the ceiling too.
God is good. Jesus’ message about the Father was that “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5).
Prayer is not just positive thinking. Prayer is not whispering gentle wishes to the universe. When we pray, we are approaching a throne, and there is someone on the throne, and that someone is God, and he is able.
This throne is for misfits and mess ups and the needy and the desperate and the losers and left-behinds. This throne celebrates personal inadequacy.
Prayer is not supposed to be depressing! We will never be able to sustain a practice of prayer unless it involves what early Christians called sursum corda—a lifting of the heart.
(Adapted: John Ortburg, “Steps,” pp 245-246)