“God is the constant gracious listener to our every thought, and prayer begins when we bring what we most naturally think about before God.”- John Ortberg
“But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”- Philippians 4:6 (ESV)
As John Ortberg concludes Chapter 11 of The Me I Want to Be, he explains the goal of prayer. But first, he stresses that the goal of prayer is not to:
- get good at praying, as many people think
- try to set new records for how much time one spends praying
Rather, Pastor Ortberg underscores, “the goal of prayer is to live all of my life and speak all of my words in joyful awareness of the presence of God (italics author’s).”
For example, John observes, Jesus lived His everyday life constantly aware of His Father. As a result, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He began by ‘looking up to pray (John 11:41, paraphrased).” Unlike today, when many people close their eyes to pray, people in Jesus’ day commonly prayed with their eyes open.
In conclusion Pastor Ortberg notes his personal prayer tendency. Although John ends up praying for things he thinks he should pray about, his mind wanders toward the stuff he genuinely cares about. Thus, the way to let talking flow into praying involves praying what is in you. John explains that praying what’s in you is and “in everything” kind of prayer. Therefore, he doesn’t:
- first clean up his motives
- present a false spirituality
- pray what ought to be in him
Today’s question: How’s Jesus proven Himself the constant gracious listener in your life? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Real freedom = internal freedom”
