Susan Hoyle, pastor Trinity United Methodist Church
God calls us to be a people of prayer. Prayer is a holy activity, our conversation with God. If asked, most of us would say that we pray. We might say a quick, “help me, Lord” prayer or a longer prayer naming our needs. Prayer is something we do and it is also something we are to think about. How long has it been since you have thought about your prayer life? What changes have occurred since you first began praying to God?
The first prayers children learn are often said at mealtime. Perhaps you grew up in church and have always said a prayer before a meal. Or maybe you never attended church as a child, yet when you think back, you did learn a mealtime prayer. We might learn them at church, at home or at a relative’s house. It might be at a day care or club. How many of us learned “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. Amen” or another mealtime prayer. We may not remember how we learned the prayer, but we still know it “by heart” today. Maybe now you say a mealtime prayer without even thinking much about it; it has become a holy habit. You might even pray silently or out loud with family and friends when you dine at a restaurant. I have found that servers, even in their busy jobs, will wait to serve, when prayer are being said. Have you ever thought to pray for your server as you thank God for this food and all who have prepared it for you? There’s a lot to think about with our mealtime prayers. They help us remember that God provides for us and when we “give thanks” we step outside of ourselves and we’re reminded “it’s not about us, it’s all about God.”
Children often learn bedtime prayers, too. The “Now I lay me down to sleep” is still remembered by many of us. You might remember kneeling down by your bed, saying this or another bedtime prayer and then giving a list of everyone you loved and wanted God to take care of. Do you still say bedtime prayers today? Perhaps you even say a “Good morning, God” prayer, too.
So we have mealtime and bedtime prayers. Then there are lifetime prayers. The Lord’s Prayer is a lifetime prayer. It contains everything we need in a prayer. Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked him to teach them to pray. In the prayer, we give thanks to God, we praise God, we ask for our daily bread, to be forgiven and to learn how to forgive others. How powerful it is to think that when we say the Lord’s Prayer millions of other Christians throughout the world are saying it, too, in their own language 2000 years after Jesus first taught it. More people than we can even imagine have said that prayer to God through the centuries; it holds more power than we can ever know.
Mealtime, bedtime and lifetime prayers are important as are the prayers that come from our hearts in times of need and times of joy. These are prayers that just come from within us, thanking God, crying out to God and everything in between. Sometimes we think we have to have just the right words to pray. And we do have just the right words-whatever we want to say to God are the right words. God wants us to share everything with God. Isn’t that how we grow closer to each other, sharing our lives? That’s how we grow closer to God, too. We might think that our prayers can only be this way or that way that we can’t let in our emotions. But that just isn’t true. You might read the psalms, just about every emotion is lifted up to God in prayer. As we grow closer to God, we feel freer to say whatever we need to say. As a person said once, “it’s ok to get angry with God, God can take it!” God wants us to be “real” in our prayers. Real in our love for God and yes, even real in our resentment or anger towards God. Remember, God can take it…what matters is that we share our lives with God, all the good and not so good.
Our prayers matter whether they are mealtime, bedtime, lifetime or prayers from the depths of our souls, God hears them and holds them tenderly, just like God holds you….may you know God’s loving touch on your life this week, may you feel the joy that comes from praying to God every day of our life…amen.
