In Jeremiah 29 we are taught that if we seek God with all our heart and soul that he will make himself known to us.
I have been thinking on this lately. It seems to me that my prayer life could be better. If I am to seek him with all my heart, might, mind, and strength that I could definitely be doing more. But the question then became apparent to me: How?
To be clear I am not so arrogant as to be convinced that I am doing all that I could right now, but the question of how I could improve still hung in my mind. I occasionally through an answer at the question to see if any would stick but for many day nothing did. Then a few things happened this week that resulted in me weakly throwing a couple of answers at this that to my surprise stuck.
I was surprised party by the nature of the answers, they were not the ones I would have thought such as making time, setting up a place, and pondering what I should pray for before. Not that these are incorrect but they were not the answer for me. I was also surprised because of the source of the answers. To show How I came to this, thus far, mysterious answer I shall relay to, my reader, the three events that transpired this week that cause me to find it.
First was that my best friend was out of town. For context I hang out with him every Friday and most every Saturday, we watch movies, party, go out to eat, do a whole number of activities, and most importantly talk. I talk with him about everything, bad days at work, good days, things I’m nervous about, ladies I’d like to ask out, jokes I’ve heard/made up, and countless other things. But we were not able to hang out as he was gone. I had also not seen him on Tuesday earlier in the week like I normally do and the previous time I had seen him we were playing racquetball and I kinda (not kinda straight up did) broke his glasses off his face and we did really get to talk much then either.
Second event that happened was watching bluey with my brother’s daughter, I cannot spell the word that means brother’s daughter and I have no internet to spell check right now. I do not know if you have seen bluey but it is a pretty cute show that is quite wholesome, I recommend it. But in the one of the episodes that we watch the youngest character, named bingo, found a leafy bug. It crawled off the plan it was on, on to her nose. She got very excited and kept calling for her dad to tell him. But her dad was busy playing a game and did not hear her call for him. Later in the evening as they were going to bed bingo was quite sad and it was found out that this cool thing had happened to her but she had had no one to share it with.
By now I’m sure you see where this is going, but alas at the time I did not, praise the God to doesn’t give up on dumb people like Janson.
The third and finial thing that happened was while I was driving around alone Saturday I was listening to my audio book and waiting for the rain to lighten up. All of a sudden, a bright rainbow appeared. Rarely have I seen one where the colors were so crisp or the shape so defined. It was beautifully stunning, and yet I was alone with no one to tell it to. No one to share it with.
As the sadness of that situation began to settle in, I began to remember the other two events. It stood out to me then the main point, for lack of a better phrase, of those experiences was that there was no one to share with when there should have been. It was at this point that the people in the audio book that I was listening to began to break out into spontaneous prayer. Right then the answer clicked.
I was not alone, I had someone I could talk with as I do my best friend, I had someone I could share a cool thing in the way bingo wanted to share with her dad, I had someone I could tell of the beauty of the rainbow. And you know what, it was the same person who put that rainbow there.
The answer I suddenly had for how to better my prayer life was to share more with the Lord. My prayers have so often boiled down to pleas of forgiveness and supplications for interventions and blessings wither on my behalf or another’s. But this is not enough for the rich and healthy prayer life we are to have.
Thank Him for the beauty you see, but do not just stop there share with him why you find it beautiful.
Express your worries to Him, share your hopes with Him, rejoice is joys Him, and mourn with Him in times of mourning.
Turn to Him at all times and in all places, unlike Bingo’s father our Father is never distracted but ready and listening.
We Love because He first loved us. He still loves us. We can have a real relationship with Him and it starts with prayer.
As always Im praying for thee; please prey for me.