Prayer: Getting real
Prayer is about asking and about thanks, but it is also about opening up.
One of my favourite images is that prayer is like a camera. The lens is focused and the shutter opens... The light shines in and leaves an image on the film negative or sensor. Prayer is very similar to this: We focus in on God, we open the shutters of our hearts and He shines His light in and our hearts (the film/sensor) are changed...
Psalm 139 is all about opening up to God. In the first part of the Psalm, the psalmist struggles with the almost relentless knowledge that God has of him. (Even when he tries to escape God he cannot!) Then he begins to realise that God loves Him with the tender love of a creator, and that he, the Psalmist, is a precious creature. His response is to give even more of himself to this tender, merciful, loving God.
And so, where the Psalm began with the Psalmist running away from a God who knew too much, the psalm ends with the author running toward God all the while offering everything he (the Psalmist) has.
Our prayers should involve some of this: that we open our hearts to God - even the scary and ugly bits - that we stop pretending and that we stop hanging on to a false dignity. We need to turn to Him and call for His help, we need to expose ourselves to Him.
| Search me O God and know my heart Test me and know my anxious thoughts See if there is any offensive way in me And lead me in the way everlasting (Psalms139:23-24) |
