The boldest act of prayer

“I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.” (Psalm 119:58ESV)

My perspectives on prayer have begun to change in recent years. I see it in a much bigger, and frankly more exciting context as I get beyond the idea of prayer simply being me filling the air with words at God (not just to God, but at him). No longer do I see it as simply laying out my needs, my wants, lifting up people as they pop into my head and then hoping I’ve covered my bases. That kind of praying didn’t change me a great deal and frankly, it still keeps the focus on me.

Asking God to change me instead of my circumstances is probably the boldest act of prayer that I embark on. It is what will change the way I see others. It is what will alter my perspective of the world around me. I would much rather ask God to change others or my circumstances than to be shown what it is about me that is ugly and needs to be surrendered.

Prayer that changes me is prayer that can’t be simply concluded by an “amen.” It is the ongoing conversation of prayer that reveals my weaknesses, exposes my truest needs, and changes my view of how I really want to see my life invested. It is that conversation of life with God’s Spirit that ultimately changes the way I am willing to invest myself. For me, that is the shift from prayer merely being an exercise that I had to engage in as opposed to embracing something that I could live as naturally as breathing air. My focus went from how to “do” prayer to how to embrace it and eventually, how to simply experience it happening.

It has only been since I began to embrace that way of being that I have sensed God challenging my generosity, my willingness to be inconvenienced, and the overall way I approach the things I see happening in the world that “someone should do something about.” It turns out that someone is I.