Prayer

Today my devotion was about prayer.  I understand that I should pray without ceasing, and if I do everything will work for God's glory (not mine).  I understand that the Lord taught us to pray and I use the Lord's Prayer every day to start my day...I have decided that if God thought it was a good example, who am I to question that! Of course, I put in my own sidebars to personalize and give it meaning to me; I want to ensure I am not just reciting it. However, I always feel I am not a "good pray-er" because mine are concise and other people recite such eloquent prayers.

As usual, the Lord wants me to understand how He made me; and today is no exception.  The devotion today pointed out how concise the Lord's prayer is. Concise? Really? You mean I am not the only one? That is such a relief to me! As a concise pray-er, I don't go on and on. In fact, I am overall a concise person.  I say what I need to say, hopefully as carefully as possible, and I am finished. In fact, I have to work at saying more when people want to continue the conversation!  Due to my conciseness, I feel sometimes as if my prayers aren't good enough, because I don't offer a lengthy,  eloquent, soliloquy that I hear others pray. I am always impressed with people who can do that.

Today, though, the devotion quoted C.S. Lewis about how hard prayer can be sometimes, because we are here and God is still the holy one. Because of that, there is a disconnect that makes it difficult to pray.  However, sometimes, these difficult times of prayer (according to C. S. Lewis) might just be our most honest prayers! They are direct, completely honest, and maybe concise, because we don't know what else to say and the Holy Spirit has to fill in the gaps for us. Wow! That makes me feel better.  Not only do I have the Holy Spirit to help me out, but I don't have to be flowery to talk to God. That is a relief.

Having said all that,  I am still of the inclination that I need to improve my prayer life.  After all,  I am talking to God, the creator of all things!   I do not want to become complacent or disconnected; so I will pursue trying to pray without ceasing; and if some day that means I will pray wonderful, thoughtful, flowery prayers, then so be it.  If not, I will still be loved by God, and I will still love Him for His unconditional and complete love for me..Miss Concise.