Pause for Prayer: TUESDAY 7/11

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Help me to pray, Lord,

    for I don’t know how to pray as I ought…

I try to "make time" for prayer -

    forgetting that few things in my life are more important

    than spending time each day in prayer,

    just talking, chatting with you…

I "try to make time" for prayer
    but you're always there, 

        ready to meet me in prayer,

    never too busy to sit down to listen to me

       and hear me out…

But sometimes, Lord, 

    I worry about prayer...

 

I worry bout what to say when I pray.
I forget that you're always ready
    to pick up our conversation right where we left off
    even if I've forgotten what we talked about 

        the last time we spoke

        or when it was we did...

           
But even when I worry 

    about how to pray or what to say
- you're totally happy 

    just because I've come to pray again!

I complicate my prayer when I worry 

    about what to say and how to say it
as if you might ever turn down my prayer
    because I stumbled in finding the "right” words

        - or found no words at all  -

    in spite of all my heart desired to speak...

You're pleased with my prayer, Lord,

    you're always pleased with my prayer;

even when I can't find words to pray
    you're pleased, always pleased

        with the prayer of my presence...

I so often and so easily forget 

    that you understand me completely,

    that you hear my prayer, Lord,

        in the flow of my tears,

        the groans of my pain,

        the shivers of my fears,

        the silence of my sorrow

    and in the peaceful sigh

        of finding myself again in your presence…

My prayer needs no special words, Lord:
    you're always pleased to listen

        when I "make it up as I go along,"
    when my words come not from a book

        or some memorized texts

            - but simply from my heart…

 
Remind me, Lord, that beginning to pray is simple:

    I need only sit in silence

        and speak your name…

Help me remember, Lord,

    it’s always you who call me to prayer

     - even when I think it’s all my idea…

I know that you know 

    what’s on my mind and in my heart

        long before I ever even think to pray:

but oh, how you love it

    when I share with you

        what you’ve known of me

            from before all time began...

Your love for me is simple, Lord:

    you’re always waiting for me

         even when I haven’t prayed in ages;

you welcome me warmly,

     even when I've strayed from your Word;

you look me in the eye

     when I fear looking back into yours;

you open wide your arms to me

     even, especially, when I've been unfaithful to you;

you’re there for me, always,
    even when I've ignored you

         or turned away from your face…

 

I don't need a saint’s words and wisdom
    to come to you in prayer, Lord,

I need only: 

    to thank you for my blessings

     praise you for your glory,

     ask pardon for my sins,

     seek your help in all my troubles

     and beg the grace to be more faithful today

         than I was the day before...

 

Remind me that coming to you in prayer

    is like meeting up with an good friend,
        who loves me and accepts me as I am...

Prayer, Lord, is a homecoming

    where the door is always open

        and I am always welcome to come in...

Help me to pray, Lord,

    for I don’t know how to pray as I ought…

Amen.

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