Caesura: Prayer

Welcome to another Caesura. This week we reflect on prayer. Take this time to pause. Take time to be with your Father. As always, keep yearning. You can do this.

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Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:12-13 (NIV)

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This week I'm going to let you in a little secret of mine...up until recently praying wasn't my thing. Around me, people would say that I had a gift for prayer. It was only when I was in groups that I really prayed. Which is bizarre because I was the most frank with God in these situations and you would think that it would be the other way round. In private be open and honest, and in public fit my prayer into this box we define as prayer. The thing was that there was very limited personal prayer. I understood that the holy spirit would intercede on my behalf when there wasn't the words but sometimes there just wouldn't be the open dialogue in the first place. For me, prayer felt too intangible, having been brought up in the Army, where we are known for doing things, I felt that in order to help a situation I had to do something. But I came to realise, that I can't always help practically, and I can't always be physically there. More recently, I have been in situations where I am praying more, which is out of my comfort zone but I am growing so much and my chats with God just keep getting longer and more comfortable. I've also taken the barrier I had to prayer and turned it into a facilitator. I have started to prayer journal and it's really helped me to turn what I felt was intangible into something tangible. You see, it's part of our calling as Christians, to be like Jesus, therefore we need to have an open dialogue with our Father.

In Jeremiah, we see of God's promise to us. If we call on His name, He will listen. If you truly seek, you will find Him. This is a sentiment repeated in the words of Jesus in Matthew's gospel. If you seek, you will find, if you knock, the door will open. I love that no matter what He will listen. Now, sometimes our humanness takes over our prayers, when things don't seem to go our way, we can become disillusioned, but take a look at this verse in 1 John.

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This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

1 John 5:14 (NIV)

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You see, God will do anything for us - if it is His will. Now for many, that can be a hard concept to grasp. But for me, it's simple, I see it like this. I have put my faith in Him and I confess to trust Him, so surely in the good times and the bad, He knows what He is doing and as much I can hurt, I trust His plan for my life. Just the verse before, in Jeremiah 29:11, we read "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." So when I pray, I come before Him, warts and all, mostly, with my human requests. Then, I trust that He will do the right thing.

Reflect today: How is your relationship with God? How is your prayer life? What can you do to actively pursue Him in the good times, and the bad?

Dear Lord,

Its not always easy to trust. Its not always easy to pray. Please give me the strength to be able to pursue an honest, open relationship with you. Help me to realise that prayer doesn't have to come just in the bad times but I can call out in praise and joy when the good times come. Thank you for being there for me - always.

Amen