When you pray...

Matthew 6:5-8 (ESV)

⁵ “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.⁷ “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

I have been asking the Lord to teach me to pray. With that aim, I am reading Rosalind Rinker's book, Prayer, Conversing with God. Her insights regarding talking with the Lord are worth noting. I hope they are as eye opening for you as they were for me. First, she defines conversation as a method which should provide communication between two or more people. Then, she lists 4 points about real conversation. 1) When we converse, we become aware of the other person, his rights, his privileges, his feeling, and if we converse long enough, his total personality. 2) Good conversation implies that we must take turn about it and do it gracefully. 3) It should be clear that to converse we must all pursue the same subject, and pursue it by turns. 4) To carry on a conversation of any significance or interest, each person must use his memory to recall, his patience to wait, his alertness to jump in, his willingness to get out, and above all his capacity to hold back the disruptive. In other words, he should be in tune.
I don't know about you, but I can easily get distracted in my prayers. I can get on a tangent about with is important to me and almost fail to acknowledge my Lord except for His ability to be the grantor of my wants and wishes. I can rush through and hardly give Him a chance to get a word in. I am glad for these reminders from Rosalind Rinker's book and from God's Word. I want to make a point of spending more time alone(in secret) with my Lord...savoring His presence, surrendering my needs and longings to Him, and submitting to His will. Like a long conversation with a friend on the couch, I want not only to be heard, but also to hear...not only to be known, but also to know...not only to be touched, but also to touch. I want to be in tune with my Heavenly Father!

Rosalind Rinker's book Prayer Conversing with God was published in 1959 by Zondervan Publishing House.