Life can be hard, one moment you feel you are headed in a new direction, you feel like this is the beginning of a good thing. Then a curve ball is thrown your way, it knocks you off balance and causes you doubt where you think you are going.
Where do we look in those times?
I find that times like these when we should pray and bring everything before God, we don’t. We try to do everything on our own. Bringing your problems and worries before God seems so simple, yet something about it forces us to admit that there is a problem. We already know that we cannot hide anything from God but some how we choose to delay the opportunity to speak to him in prayer.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the Lord’s people. Ephesians 6:18
Prayer allows us to directly communicate what we are feeling to God, He listens and listens. I often forget how He wants to hear from us, He cares about every detail of our lives. Our prayers are able to reveal what we feel God is capable of doing in our lives.
‘Western culture has tended to be an extroverted culture and a “can-do” culture. Prayer too easily became an attempt to change God and aggrandise ourselves instead of what it was meant to be an interior practice to change the one who is praying, which will always happen if we stand calmly before this uncanny and utterly safe Presence, allowing the Divine Gaze to invade and heal our unconscious, the place where 95 percent of our motivations and reactions come from. All we can really do is return the gaze.’ Richard Rohr.
Prayer doesn’t need to be complicated, it is our way of communicating with God and we should pray expectantly trusting that He will lead us. Praying expectantly may not mean that our prayers are answered in the way we expected, God’s way of working is totally different to the way the world works, and the way we think. However we have the confidence that what He has planned for us is even greater than we can ever imagine.
After leaving University I had no idea what I was going to do, I knew what I wanted but didn’t have a plan of how to get there. I felt like God was silent when I really needed to hear His voice. But during this time He taught me the importance of persisting in prayer and learning to wait on His call instead of trying to move on quickly to the ‘next thing’.
One year later I never would have thought I was be back at University studying Marketing but I can now see how everything worked together. It has taught me the importance of prayer and how that when tough times come, we need only lift our eyes to things above and enjoy the life that has been set before us. It is in these moments that we learn about contentment and trusting that despite the pain and confusion we are facing, God is right there with us waiting to reveal His plan.
‘Go where your best prayers take you. Unclench the fists of your spirit and take it easy. Breathe deep of the glad air and live one day at a time. Know that you are precious’ Frederick Buechner
By: Rachel Smylie
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