July 16, 2013

Philippians 4:6-7 — Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 About a week ago I wrote about “praying without ceasing”. I answer emails from people just coming to know Jesus, or wanting to grow in their Christian walk. (You could get involved that way too — look at www.globalmediaoutreach.com). One of the most frequent questions to come my way is “How should I pray?” Sometimes it comes as “How can I pray better?” Now I know some of you reading this are powerful prayer warriors, and need no advice in this area! Perhaps some of you, though, are asked the same questions. I have my own answers, that I provide to those who ask, but today I came across some beautiful writing about prayer that I thought I would share.

Hannah Tatum Whitall Smith was a lay speaker and author in the Holiness movement in the United States and the Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. She wrote some much-loved devotionals, and in “The Christian’s Secret of A Holy Life” I found:

We must remember that there is no human being with whom we may be as free as with our Lord; and it is not beautiful prayers He wants but just for us to tell Him our needs.

If you only need one thing, ask for that, if two, ask for them, and then stop. Never try to make a prayer. Some of the most effectual prayers I have ever heard, have been just two or three sentences spoken in the utmost simplicity.

I don’t know that I have ever seen a better description of the kind of prayer that seeks God’s answers to our needs. Of course prayer is not just about that — unless you can recognize that the kind of prayer that seeks to line up our will with His is another way of asking for our needs to be met.

The verses at the top of this devotion are amongst my favorites (yes, I know I’m not supposed to have favorite parts of scripture). When I was a teenager we used to sing a beautiful setting by Henry Purcell in our school chapel (if some of you can’t handle the image of me singing in a school chapel, I forgive you). But I never understood prayer then, and it wasn’t until I’d been a Christian for a year or two that I started to get a clue. What I’ve come to understand — and the understanding grows deeper the more I pray — is that the simpler prayer gets, the closer it is to being real prayer. It’s back to Psalm 131 — ” Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.” — that is the spirit of prayer ..