We all RUSH to the prayer meeting, right? We all LOVE to pray, right?

Now, I know- I hear groans of guilt emanating from your gut. I know, I know. We SHOULD pray more, but we don’t.

And maybe by opening up the problem layer by layer, we can discover the root of the issue.

Exposure is the place of healing.

Please – let’s remove the guilt or shame and look at the true longings of our hearts dispassionately.

The How To Be A Good Christian handbook, which is several hundred pages long that every Christian receives on the first day they get saved, says on Page 1, “A good Christian person reads their bible every day.”

Great advice, right?

The only problem is that there is no record of Jesus doing that every day.

And yes, yes, let’s set aside the fact the Gutenberg printing press hadn’t been invented yet in Jesus’ time, and all that.

What we do know is that Jesus PRAYED.

A LOT. He valued prayer more than sleep.

Let’s start there.

[Jesus] dismissed the people. With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night. The Message

Our How To Be A Good Christian handbook SHOULD instead say on Page 1 that every Christian should PRAY.

But that is too hard, so we cross out PRAY and substitute READ THE BIBLE.

We don’t like prayer.

Ah! I said it out loud

(It’s OK. God already knows)

YOU DON’T LIKE TO PRAY!!

And look, God didn’t run from you offended, but He drew nearer, offering you His hand. He knows that we don’t initially love to pray. Us trying to hide the fact with spiritual embarrassment only keeps Him at bay.

He is the God of truth and He promises that the truth will set us free. Yes, even about this.

He will draw near to us, put His arm around us, and tell us to rest, in His arms, as small children do. We can stop trying to build a mansion when we are 2 years old, or similarly, to try to wear the armor of a prayer warrior that is too big for us, yet.

We will only frustrate ourselves. Thankfully, the expectations the 2-year-old has for himself are not the expectations the parents have for their child. It’s the same with God.

He just expects us to sit, to be still with Him, and to receive nourishment from Him, as a baby receives milk from her mother. What word of scripture nourishes you, this day?

Can we simply sit, with that scripture passage, and rest in His arms, meditating on His word, on His spiritual milk?

God, I’m not trying to rule the roost,
I don’t want to be king of the mountain.
I haven’t meddled where I have no business
or fantasized grandiose plans.

I’ve kept my feet on the ground,
I’ve cultivated a quiet heart.
Like a baby content in its mother’s arms,
my soul is a baby content.

Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope.
Hope now; hope always! The Message

This resting in the arms of our loving Father is true prayer.

Are you ready to be comforted?

Five steps to help us learn to truly love to pray will be discussed in the next post.

(After the Easter Bunny visits us, that is).