Prayer is a dialogue: God talks to us by His Word, His creation and His Son; we reply in prayer and praise. But how do we pray?
It is difficult. We are poor, inarticulate creatures finding it almost impossible to form acceptable phrases. How then can we talk to God?
First, it is not what we say, it is what we think that matters. Training in the school of spiritual understanding will aid our ability to pray. Our attitude of mind and manner of life will help us talk to God. Prayer is the expression of our mind; the revelation of our inner thoughts to our Father in heaven.
We cannot run away from the presence of God; we cannot escape. “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit: or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psa. 139:7). Let us, therefore, seek His company, His grace, His love, peace and power, for in His omnipresence He knows our thoughts. We live our lives before God who offers us friendship — guidance on every road, direction at all times.
God is inescapable, therefore let us accept His presence and talk to Him daily. May our cry be, “Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name.” The Psalmist here speaks of the prison house of sin and of our captivity to the propensities of our human nature.
We are selfish, self-willed creatures enslaved by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is the expansion of the personal pronoun “I.” Notice how the selfish man thought: “And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do because I have no room to bestow my fruits?…This will I do: I will pull down my barns and build greater.” The sentence which begins with a selfish “I” does not in the end find grace in the King’s ear.
Talking to God is difficult but He makes it easier. He gave His own Son in such a manner that, “we have not an High Priest who cannot be touched by the feeling of our infirmities but was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace” (Heb. 4:15-16). Jesus is the way to the Father; the door into the house of God. We know and can describe our side of the door: the temporal, transitory world of our short lifetime. But the eternal things of God are perceived only by learning of Jesus Christ, listening to his words and beholding in his face the knowledge of the glory of God.
It was Moses’ face that shone with the glory of God: “And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Through Christ, we may approach the throne of grace with boldness, but remember it must be a two-way conversation. For this to happen we must have the attitude, “Not my will but thine be done.”
It is when we serve the Lord in the beauty of holiness and learn to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ that true talking to God can become part of our existence and the spiritual dimension of our lives.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One