A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

by Paul E. Miller

It’s hard to pray.

The most common frustration is the activity of praying itself.

Our natural desire to pray comes from Creation. We are made in the image of God.

Our inability to pray comes from the Fall. Evil has marred the image.

Even our church services can have that same restless energy. There is little space to be still before God. We want our money’s worth, so something should always be happening. We are uncomfortable with silence.

Only crazy people talk to themselves.

What does it mean that you are a son or daughter of God?” You reply that it means you have complete access to your heavenly Father through Jesus. You have true intimacy, based not on how good you are but on the goodness of Jesus. Not only that, Jesus is your brother. You are a fellow heir with him.

praying life feels like our family mealtimes because prayer is all about relationship. It’s intimate and hints at eternity.

Prayer is simply the medium through which we experience and connect to God.

Oddly enough, many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God. Making prayer the center is like making conversation the center of a family mealtime. In prayer, focusing on the conversation is like trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it. It freezes us, making us unsure of where to go. Conversation is only the vehicle through which we experience o...

We don’t learn to pray in isolation from the rest of our lives.

Nor is faith isolated from prayer.

You don’t experience God; you get to know him. You submit to him. You enjoy him. He is, after all, a person.

It is a journey of a lifetime.

If God is sovereign, then he is in control of all the details of my life. If he is loving, then he is going to be shaping the details of my life for my good. If he is all-wise, then he’s not going to do everything I want because I don’t know what I need. If he is patient, then he is going to take time to do all this.

Learning to pray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart.

Real change is at the heart level.

A needy heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer.

First, it reflects a real relationship.

Second, my prayer was interconnected with every aspect of my life.

Third, my life became a story filled with tension that eventually led to change, to hope, because during those six years I learned to pray.

Fourth, my life became integrated.

Jesus is thrilled his disciples are like little children.

Jesus wants us to be without pretense when we come to him in prayer.

We don’t know how bad we are until we try to be good. Nothing exposes our selfishness and spiritual powerlessness like prayer.

The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy.

The only way to come to God is by taking off any spiritual mask. The real you has to meet the real God. He is a person.

The kingdom comes when Jesus becomes king of your life.

How do we learn to talk with our Father? By asking like a child, believing like a child, and even playing like a child.

Repeatedly.

Without guile.

The second thing we must do in learning to pray is believe like a child.

The first is a Roman officer, a centurion, who is so confident of Jesus’ ability to heal his paralyzed servant that he asks Jesus to heal without even visiting his home.

The second is a Canaanite woman whose daughter is possessed by a demon.

When your mind starts wandering in prayer, be like a little child. Don’t worry about being organized or staying on task. Paul certainly wasn’t!

Remember, the point of Christianity isn’t to learn a lot of truths so you don’t need God anymore. We don’t learn God in the abstract. We are drawn into his life.

Jesus is, without question, the most dependent human being who ever lived.

Jesus defines himself only in relationship with his heavenly Father.

His prayer life is an expression of his relationship with his Father. He wants to be alone with the person he loves.

When Jesus is with someone, that person is the only person in the room.

Love incarnates by slowing down and focusing on just the beloved.

When he prays, he is not performing a duty; he is getting close to his Father.

You don’t create intimacy; you make room for it. This is true whether you are talking about your spouse, your friend, or God. You need space to be together. Efficiency, multitasking, and busyness all kill intimacy. In short, you can’t get to know God on the fly. If Jesus has to pull away from people and noise in order to pray, then it makes sense that we need to as well.

Praying out loud can be helpful because it keeps you from getting lost in your head. It makes your thoughts concrete. But it is more than technique; it is also a statement of faith. You are audibly declaring your belief in a God who is alive.

If you are not praying, then you are quietly confident that time, money, and talent are all you need in life. You’ll always be a little too tired, a little too busy. But if, like Jesus, you realize you can’t do life on your own, then no matter how busy, no matter how tired you are, you will find the time to pray.

Prayer is bringing your helplessness to Jesus.

“Prayer is an expression of who we are. . . . We are a living incompleteness. We are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment.”

The gospel, God’s free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don’t have it all together.

Weakness is the channel that allows them to access grace.

Surprisingly, mature Christians feel less mature on the inside.