The implications of prayer and all that it means has been gripping my heart-so much so that I haven’t been able to get over it-something that, truly, I hope never to recover from. The realization of the actual power of prayer has been laid anew-how it is gloriously so because of the One who receives them.

The other day I received a text message from someone letting me know they were praying for me.  I was at first simply thankful for the gesture, thankful to have heard from them and was encouraged by the reminder that others were praying for me.  Mere moments later, however, I was pierced with what this meant for me and the posture this person was taking on my behalf—my whole spirit was moved, literally feeling a weight for what this meant and why it was just so dang sweet.

I’ve grown up learning how to pray by hearing “Oh, it’s just a conversation with God”, I admit as well that I have used this same phrase in describing what prayer is in it’s most simplest and concise form.  To a degree, yes, it is an exchange of words to God, but to understand and wrap your mind around the truth that prayer is the ordained, designed and given way for sinners to speak to their Heavenly Father, are facts that move me to worship, mouth gaping wide open, eyes stunned, left in awe.

And Jesus had to die in order for this free communication to happen—for this fellowship and relationship to be made possible.  Our sin separated us from God our Father, and Jesus came to restore that relationship—no longer us needing to sacrifice a perfect animal before approaching the Throne of the All-Knowing God–we can speak to Him because we are made perfect through His Son.

When we pray, it is more than just us simply talking,

It is running to the foot of a Savior—

It is admitting that we cannot do anything for others that that would be enough

It is allowing the Holy Spirit to unite you with other believers

It is humbling ourselves saying we are not sufficient to meet our own needs

It is knowing we don’t have the right answers

It is acknowledging we know God has a plan-purposeful, laid out before we were even in the womb of our mothers

It is saying “I am at the throne of the King-who holds tomorrows and gives breaths, commands winds to blow and raises the sun every morning.  You are all powerful and only You can do anything about these requests.”

I can come to the throne in c.o.n.f.i.d.e.n.c.e knowing that He gives more and more grace-not in moments before I need them, or seconds after, but specifically in the midst of my time of need.

And I don’t have to be anxious about anything, because I am told to cast, shed, throw my worries on the shoulders of my Savior because He cares about me, about my needs, about my heart.

And the greatest thing is—that at my core, He knows my motives too.  I can paint my prayers with the prettiest language I know, but the Lord knows my heart, my need, my want and my incentive for coming to Him, and I can’t get away with it.  I can’t manipulate Him or talk Him into giving me what I want…and as frustrated as my selfish heart can get over this, in His timing that is literally nothing short of stunning-He gives me what my heart really desires.  And oh how I know when my spirit is yearning to make appropriate words to communicate what exactly I am feeling—the Holy Spirit takes over when I cannot find an adequate string of words and I am thankful.

Often I find myself like Hannah, tears drenching the floor and if it weren’t for the secret and quiet of my room in the alone apart from others, I may had been taken as a girl who has gone crazy in her distress and I know that I am heard.

I find myself sometimes like Mary even, totally overcome in thankfulness, praise, worship and adoration of how a perfect God could use and even look upon a girl as insignificant and lowly as me.

And then again, there are times I take the posture of Joshua, my face literally on the ground, looking for instruction, looking for what to do next—how to follow Him, knowing that His presence was so precious that I must linger in that place longer-paralyzed, unwilling to move.

Prayer is powerful.  Gloriously, wonderfully, divinely so.