When Prayer Feels Overwhelming

I met with a good buddy of mine every Wednesday morning at the same coffee shop at 6:30 a.m. It sits about 4 blocks from both of our houses, so it's a great location, and it has just about the best dirty Chai latte either of us have ever had (shoutout to you, Shades of Brown). We meet up to read, exchange successes/struggles and discuss random facts of life. It's a great time.

Anyway, today we were talking, and the topic of prayer came up. I asked him a question about whether or not he thought that prayer seemed overwhelming at times, and just as I feel, he too said it felt overwhelming at times. It was a great piece of honesty that I've never gotten off my chest before, and I'm glad I wasn't alone in feeling that way.

I mean, think about it. The Bible tells us to 'pray without ceasing,' there's always prayer requests coming in from friends and family and then to wrap it all up, there's always local, national and global issues and leaders to pray for. It's A LOT, and frankly, much of the time, I'm not sure what to do with it all and how to feel about it.

Usually, I spend my 'high points' of prayer in the morning and at night each day. Those are the times when I shut my door, turn everything off and am able to sit in the presence of my Maker to pray. These are also the times when I find myself most overwhelmed by prayer. As I'm praying, the task of trying to remember all the request I've been asked to pray for over the last few days, the needs of my country and the praises of answered prayers past seems daunting, and I often find myself trying to remember things rather than praying for them. After all, I don't want to be the guy that says, "Yes, I'll be praying for you," and then never actually do it.

So, the more my friend and I talked about this situation and this feeling, the more we realized that praying doesn't have to be a set schedule, and it doesn't always have to be everything all at once. Prayer can be whenever, wherever, and the last thing it should be is 'overwhelming.' It should be the opposite of that, really. Don't worry about piecing all the prayer requests you have stored up in a two minute prayer before you walk out the door. We have 24-hours in a day for a reason, and we're to pray without ceasing for a reason. It's inevitable that the Holy Spirit is acting in the hearts of believers, and He will guide your mind and your heart to prayer. If you randomly think of someone/someone's request in the middle of the day, take a moment to say that prayer for them you said you would say. Odds are, you didn't just think of them randomly for no reason.

God knows our hearts, our minds and our souls, and He hears all of our prayers- the out-loud ones, the silent ones and the ones we stop and say during the middle of the day when it might seem most inconvenient; it's just up to us to acknowledge that wonderful promise and act on it. 

-Cliff

Cliff's Note: Prayer shouldn't be overwhelming; it should be encouraging. 

The God Who Reads Minds

I don't know about you, but when I pray, I usually bow my head, close my eyes and pray silently. It seems pretty rare that I pray out loud, unless I'm praying with/for a group of people or another person. It's something I could definitely stand to grow at, but I just noticed one thing about praying to myself the other day that I think is is cool: God can read minds.

You don't have to have me tell you that God has a lot of really amazing characteristics. He's loving, kind, good, merciful, just, etc., etc. The list could go on for eternity; however, this whole idea of God also being  all-knowing, aka omniscient, really just recently stuck out to me. Yes, all-knowing means that God knows everyone and whats going on everywhere, but it also means so much more than that to me. It means He knows my thoughts, knows my heart and knows my prayers even when I don't verbalize them. Think about that for a second and let it sink it.

Remember all those times you prayed those silent prayers to yourself? All those times you prayed along silently while the pastor prayed out loud? All the times your mind was screaming out for help but your mouth stayed shut? Yup. God heard every single one of those, and this blows my mind.

The omniscience of God gets Him access to everyone's prayers ever. Not just mine, not just yours, but everyone's from all over the world. From the young kid across the big pond saying a prayer for the very first time to the elderly folks down the street praying for their long, lost friends, He hears them all, both the silent pleas we're too afraid to say and the audible cries out for help when we're most desperate. This is extremely comforting.

Psalm 139:4 says that "before a word is even on our tongue, He knows the thought completely," and then He comes back and promises us in 1 John 3 that He is greater than our heart, even when our heart condemns us because He knows all. Essentially, He overcomes all obstacles to knowing us. He already knows us. He knows us better than anyone will and anyone every could, and as scary as that may sound, I think it still sounds more comforting. I'm thankful I have a God that I literally can't lie to because He already knows. I'm thankful that I have a God Who already knows what I need when I need it, even when I may not recognize it yet. Having a God Who reads minds may seem like too much in some people's books, but in mine, it's amazing. I can be honest with Him because He already knows the truth, and He already knows the truth because He is the Truth.

Think about it. God already knows you are.

-Cliff

Cliff's Note: God can read my mind. Cool. He can hear my prayers even when they're silent. Cooler. God knows my prayers before I even say them. Coolest.