Regarding prayer...

"...if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them." -C.S. Lewis

I was reading recently in a collection of short works by ol' Clive a passage about the efficacy of prayer. I would love to just post the whole thing, as it is quite good...but since this is "my" blog I guess I will give my musings and reactions to the passage. Basically after reading it, I was convicted about how I approach prayer. For so long, I have treated it as a suggestion box. Sometimes more urgent pleas, sometimes casual requests...but nonetheless a time to express and beg for what I thought was best. However, time after time, year after year, my prayers would just turn into a soggy mush of requests to a God who seemed far away and uninterested. I knew this wasnt true! However when I started to do my "nightly prayer" I just felt as if I was talking to a lonely, vast exapnse. I was not connecting with my personal God and Savior. Because, I think, prayer was not meant to be this...shocking, I know.

"Prayer, in the sense of petition, asking for things is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine."

**As an unrealted sidenote, I would just like to say I want to master the semi-colon! It adds so much depth to a passage I think. After a semi-colon I am always excited to see what is next...I dont know, they fascinate me. Prolly because I dont really know what their purpose is, so its always so mysterious.**

So anyway, that night I prayed and left aside my frail requests and suggestions to my omnipotent Creator and I praised Him for why I love Him. Why I have decided to surrender my life to Him and his Will. I basically told Him why He is God. It was incredible. I felt like I was just sitting talking to Him, in His living room with many bound books and a bearskin rug in front of the fire. I was enjoying Him, and He revealed Himself to me though this worship. I didnt get any answers to any of my questions or any answered prayers that night. But I did enter into my God's presence, and all my petty worries and concerns faded away in that glory. I dont expect anything in return for my "correct" prayer, other than the pleasure of being in the presence of God (which is my one true desire anyway I suppose). Im not at all saying pray like this and then the door to your worldly desires will be opened. I do think that by praising Him and entering into an attitude of worship through prayer finally ushers your spirit into His den so to speak, where the door has always been opened and he has always been inviting us, yet we continually hid down the hallway and whispered our advice as to how He should run things.

Now, we still should request things if we want, we are instructed to offer up petitions. But dont forget this is only a small part of the act of worship that is prayer. However, do not be discouraged if your requests are not answered, for the Christ Himself pleaded in the garden and his prayer was refused. CS offers an interesting view of answered/unanswered prayers "...little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability, had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle."