“Each time, before you intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!” -Andrew Murray

Quietness is becoming more and more a necessary part of the transformative work of God in me. I am not a naturally quiet person; yet, I crave seasons of silence and solitude more and more. Stillness centers my heart, and gives me the opportunity to escape the noise of my own thoughts and plans and notice the unobtrusive peacefulness of the God who would shape me more fully into the image of His Son. At the same time, being quiet allows me to hear more clearly from the Father, who loves me beyond anything I could ever imagine. His thoughts shape my prayers to give me a focus that is always directed to kingdom issues and concerns rather than my own pathetic pursuits and selfish petitions. Not that God doesn’t want to hear what is on my heart…He simply wants my heart to connect more directly with His own. It is in these moments that my intercession becomes dangerous for His sake…and the impossible becomes possible.

God has purpose and desire that I cannot know when I am not still. First, He desires to connect with me…to know that my journey belongs to Him alone. When He is allowed to direct my steps, my prayer life is yielded to His purposes. Who I am in Jesus Christ is the focal point of my life of prayer because then I am surrendered to His will and not my own. Worship springs from a heart of gratitude and longing at the same time. Surrender becomes the only way to accomplish His purposes…and His intentions are focused upon His desire that one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus, is Lord! If I am unable to shake off the noise and clutter of life to be still and know that He alone is God, I allow urgency to erase the “one thing” that is important above all other things – intimacy with the Father (Luke 10:42).

How is it possible to carve out times of refreshing in order to be drenched in the Presence of the One who gives us living water to drink? At least in my case, it takes great intentionality. Setting apart those moments of quiet can take creativity and purposeful planning…but it can be done. All that is involved is to cultivate a more continual awareness of Christ in us:

• All of us have discretionary moments when we make choices as to how the time is spent. Some of us choose to unwind and play a game or watch television or just mindlessly waste time on empty pursuits. It’s not wrong or bad to do so; however, what if our unwinding from busy stretches of life involved premeditated seasons of intimacy with God where we focus our hearts on simply being with our Father? We often think we deserve to waste time on gratuitous activity when God desires to connect Spirit to spirit in a continual embrace that takes place every moment we are willing to turn our attention towards Him.

• Some of our activity can be very naturally turned into times of listening: gardening, coffee breaks, waiting in lines, exercising, cooking, building, driving, etc. We find ways to carve out time for these kinds of activities, or they are simply part of moving from one place to the next; however, they offer opportunities for being still and knowing He is God. We have a coworker who suggests that people hit the mute button during TV commercials in order to seek the Father.

• Little children can reduce our flexibility for silence…but we can certainly invite them into the stillness with us! God desires that we come to Him as little children . . . and teaching them how to trade off times of noise and playfulness with times of quiet and worshipful listening will yield fruit beyond anything we can imagine! Find ways to train children to hear the voice of God by being still…as still as they can be!

• Persevere! Quiet is difficult for many of us, but if we patiently nurture this spiritual discipline, silence will add a powerful dimension to our intercession.
• When you are preparing to pray, do as Andrew Murray suggested: “Each time, before you intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!”

There are many ways to creatively embrace quietness in order to hear the Father’s voice, or to just simply recognize His Presence. For some, it may mean needing to find a solitary place, as Jesus so often did. For others, it may be learning to discipline the mind or to deny fleshly desires to do other things. Whatever means you use, I encourage you to pursue the heart of God whenever possible in the quiet so that He may speak and inform your prayers…and so that He may whisper how much He loves you.

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries

A friend of mine recently wrote about a question that was asked at the end of a devotion she was reading: “What is your simple prayer today?” As I thought about what a “simple prayer” looks like for me, I was reminded of a quote by author, Lee Anne Payne, who stated, “Prayer is the school from which no one graduates.” Having been in prayer ministry for many years, I still am awed by the depth and breadth of prayer, and how much I continue to learn about the Father who created this most intimate avenue to connect human hearts with His own. In the midst of the complexities of life, God’s heart is continually postured to hear from ours.

A simple prayer, to me, is the one that is on my heart in the moment…and the one that can be most easily expressed for it is closest to the surface. Perhaps it is breathing out a cry or a need that has made its way up from deep within so that the Father can be invited to bring His peace and Presence into my needful spirit. It might also be a joy-filled expression of praise in response to the goodness of the life of Jesus being formed within me. A simple prayer is unpretentious and very real…and in its rawness and humility, it is offered to God in depth of feeling rather than through the intellect. I believe that God is pleased to be engaged heart to heart throughout my day. A profound benefit is that simple prayers will likely feed and inform my longer conversations with my Father in the space I have already created in my schedule for such time with Him.

Simple prayers might be requests or just statements of thankfulness, praise, deep pain or desire. Sometimes there are just no words other than what simple prayers express to God. They are cries from the depths of my soul, and are prayers that allow me to pray without ceasing in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary moments of my everyday life when there may not be time for lengthier discourse with God…or because the circumstances surrounding my prayer are complicated, confused or happening too fast.

Although there are obviously an infinite number, simple prayers might be somewhat like these:

Help me.

Draw me close.

Hear us.

I’m hurting.

Answer me.

Fill me.

I don’t know what to do.

Strengthen them.

Show me.

You are awesome!

Empower us.

Forgive me.

I’m angry!

Please give me wisdom.

Thank You.

Teach me.

I’m so lonely.

Use us.

Equip her.

You alone are worthy of praise.

Heal them.

Help him to know You.

Send me!

No matter what I express in my simple prayers, God is waiting to meet me in the midst of them! I know this because I trust that the Spirit understands and creates meaning from my painful, confused, angry or frustrated utterances as well as from my thankful, joy-filled moments of praise. He positions my prayers before the Father…as an offering. And God, who already knows my present reality and the concerns of my heart, is pleased to hear my simple prayers in the midst of my not-so-simple life. He can respond to them in love for the sake of my transformation to become more like Jesus, and for the purposes of His kingdom.

What simple prayer is on your heart right now? Take a moment to express it to God and then sit before Him in silence. You may not get any perceived response at all…except to know that the Father, who loves you intensely, is listening and has placed His heart over your own. Trust Him to begin to work in and through your life the moment your simple prayer has been expressed. Simple prayers are not a replacement for longer seasons of prayer…but perhaps you will find that your heart will be better informed by your day when you invite the Spirit of God to be more fully present within it.

If you are like me, there are seasons when your prayer life seems out of sorts…when it feels as if God is not speaking or leading you as He perhaps has in the past. It is during such times that I begin to question why there is a lack of the sense of God’s presence. In faith, I trust that He is near, but in my flesh I wonder whether I have either been praying with wrong motives or have begun to treat prayer as a perfunctory act instead of a relationship. Such spiritual crisis and the subsequent feelings of a lack of closeness to God causes me to recognize that perhaps I have turned away from the practice of some specific spiritual disciplines that help me to lean more intently and purposefully toward my Father’s heart. These times always remind me of the importance of consistent rhythms of prayer in my everyday life.

Yet, there have been times when self-examination reveals no discernible reason for God’s silence or distance, which allows doubt to creep into my soul.  Saint John of the Cross, who lived in the 1500s, described such an experience as the “dark night of the soul,” which can be described as a time when prayer becomes difficult or unrewarding for a period of time. It can be as if one’s prayer life has virtually collapsed, sending a person into a season of doubt and confusion.

King David, the “man after God’s own heart,” experienced such times; however, his experience is what always gives me hope! In Psalms such as 13 and 22, David expresses anguish over God’s apparent absence or withdrawal from him: Psalm 13:1 – “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” However, he never loses his unwavering faith that God is good, trustworthy and constant. David’s authentic feelings of abandonment are always tempered with phrases like this one: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me” (Psalm 13:5-6). 

God’s Word says that if we seek Him, He will be found by us. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). There are days when my whole heart is not actively engaged with seeking God. There is a disconnect between my doing and my being and between my spiritual life and my secular life. If Jesus to be the Lord over all of my life, I can’t craft walls that allow Him entry into one area and not another. He is Lord of my everyday life…not just the parts I want Him to be involved in. There is nothing He can’t see, and nothing that He is not already actively engaged in, whether I am pressing in or not. And, in the times when I feel that I am leaning into Him, even in desperation, and there is no answer…my response must always be to trust that He is at work. If I seek Him, He will be found…even though it may not be in the moment I expect or desire. I know that His love for me is constant, and that sometimes His silence and my “dark night of the soul” may be my Father’s purposeful plan to build within me an even deeper trust.

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:24-34)

With the crowd almost crushing him, Jesus made his way through the enthusiastic mob on his way to heal a young girl. There were many people touching him constantly, and yet…there was one touch in the midst of it all that stopped the Lord in His tracks. After twelve years of bleeding, one woman, who had suffered and grown worse at the hands of many physicians, simply reached out to touch his cloak – believing in her heart that she would be healed.

Through God’s grace-filled love and mercy, this woman, who didn’t want to be noticed or identified, had a simple thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” And God, through the power of the Holy Spirit alive and at work in His Son, chose to bless her act of faith with complete healing. Did she know that it was God’s will to use her to bring glory to Himself? Perhaps not; however, her humble act of faith provides a good model for us to pray bold, faith-filled prayers, believing that God has the power to transform our lives. 

There are several compelling things about prayer in this passage:

Declaration of faith: First, the woman had a thought that Jesus could heal her, perhaps because she had heard about how He had healed others. I believe the thought itself came from the Holy Spirit actively at work. She could have dismissed the idea…but she didn’t. It gave her hope, and she had no other recourse than to trust and believe that what had been impossible for twelve years was now possible. In her own spirit she declared what she fully believed to be true and prayed the prayer of her heart as an affirmation of that faith: “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”

Action of faith: Second, she felt she must act upon the silent prayer within her. Summoning the courage to brave the crowds, she acted upon the faith of the testimony of her heart.

Receiving the answer to her prayer of faith: Immediately, the woman received her healing and felt it in her body.

Giving testimony of her faith: Even though it was not her intent to shout her healing to the world, when Jesus called her out, she came forward to declare what had happened to her in response to the cry of her own spirit and the believing act of faith.

Surely this timid woman had asked God over and over again to make her well. Yet, with this one simple act, her prayer was answered. The immediacy of her healing most likely shocked and overwhelmed her…the face to face encounter with Jesus was completely unexpected…and the affirmation that it was her act of faith that had brought her healing surely brought her great joy!

Jonathan Graf has stated, “Declaring prayer simply means that once we know God’s heart on an issue, we boldly pray that it will be so, and then walk in faith that it is already so – even if the answer is not yet.”

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries