Wednesday, October 27
Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee…
—Job 22:27
Have you ever talked to God? No friend ever was more ready, willing and able to listen. Tell him all that is in your heart. Pour it out. He will take it in and help you. Tell him of your joys and victories, your fears and your hopes. He waits for you to do that. It is called prayer.
There was a time when the only kind of prayers we heard about were the ones in which we asked for something (God, help me out of this mess!) and the ones in which we prayed for someone else in trouble (God, help my Uncle who is very ill…). Both of those are natural kinds of prayer.
But there are other kinds. One of the most important might be called “conversational prayer.” Just talk with God. Talk to him as you would to the person you trust the most deeply. Between topics, take some quiet time to feel God’s presence and response. That doesn’t mean you are going to be “hearing voices,” but it is possible to “sense” what God might think about what you’re saying.
One night years ago, just before I went to sleep, I said to God, “Lord, give me some slack!” Shortly after that night, my life changed quite a bit. My “prayer” was really just a casual and trusting kind of conversation.
If you care about someone, don’t you love to hear from them, by phone or e-mail or in up-close conversation? God, whose love far surpasses anything we humans can conceive, cares what we think and feel.
God yearns for us to open up to him and to trust him with the depths of our being. So “reach out and touch Someone”—God. He is there. He’ll be more than glad to hear from you.
Lord, hear me when I speak to you from my heart. Hear me and make me know of your loving interest in whatever I have to say. Amen.
These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2006.
