Prayer for Everyone

For many years, I have enjoyed the ministry of John Ortberg, author and pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California. I have read his books, articles, listened to him preach, and used his curriculum in Sunday school.

This week, I ran across an article he wrote in Leadership Journal, a magazine written for Christian leaders. It was an article on prayer, and, as he often does, John got right to the point about prayer and had some helpful advice about how to improve our prayer lives.

I think that many of us struggle with prayer in our lives of faith. How do we pray? When should we pray? How often? Even those of us who have been followers of Jesus for many years struggle with questions like these.

One of the points he made is that it is important for us to remember that we are always in the presence of God. We don’t have to go somewhere to pray. We don’t have to adopt a particular attitude, head down, eyes closed. We can pray while we drive, run, shop, or most any time and any place.

I remember a communications class I took in college where the professor said, “You cannot not communicate.” His point was that no matter what we said, and even if we said nothing, we are still communicating. Sometimes silence communicates even more than speaking.

Think how much more true that is with God. God is with us every moment, whether we are waking or sleeping. When we think about something that is bothering us, or when we worry or wonder about what the future holds, we can turn our thoughts to God. Tell God what is worrying you. Talk to God as you would your best friend, which, after all, he is.

I am always amused when people use language they think might offend me and then say, “Excuse me, pastor.” Do they think I am their biggest problem? Do they think that I am God’s microphone, and that when I leave, they will be by themselves without God listening in?

Clearly, God is in more places, and with more people than I can ever be. God knows not only what we say in our worst moments, but what we say in our best. God even knows what we do not say, and sometimes can’t even articulate.

These should become the essence of our prayers, not the flowery language we so often associate with tall steeple pulpits and pastoral prayers. We should not be afraid to show God our heart. After all, we know God sees it anyway. I think it is helpful to remember that God is as close as our next breath, and as vital as our next heartbeat.

As John Ortberg says, “The goal of prayer is not to get good at prayer, not to see who can spend the longest time in prayer. (Jesus said not to pray like the pagans who believe they will be heard because of their many words.) The goal is not to pray with greater feelings of certainty, or greater eloquence, or even greater frequency. The goal of prayer is to live all my life and do all my ministry in the joyful awareness that God is present right here, right now.”¹

1.      1.  Ortberg, John. “Getting Good at Prayer isn’t the Point.” Leadership Journal, Summer 2015: p. 29.