How To Start Praying, Again

"We know who we are praying to only if we first learn it in the Bible. And we know how we should be praying only by getting our vocabulary from the Bible. None of this should be a surprise, since we see this basic dynamic played out in the development of every new human being" (Prayer, 54-55).

Language is developed through relationship. Early in life, we don't enroll in a class on speaking. Instead, "We are plunged at birth into a sea of language," (Working the Angles, 49). We simply go about our lives, soaking in words, tone, inflection, and dialect from everyone around us. And then, usually shortly after our first birthday, we speak.

Prayer is a lot like that. While we often suppose that prayer comes from searching our desires and feelings and sharing those things with God, so much more is going on when we speak talk with our Heavenly Father. You see, even though it often feels like the opposite, prayer is never our initiative. God begins every conversation. That means, prayer, like all communication, always begins with listen.

Perhaps you don't pray all that much. Perhaps you don't know what to pray. Or perhaps your prayer life consists of thanking God for what you have and asking him for what you need (which is a very good habit). However, prayer is developed through relationship.

In Psalm 22, David laments, "my God, why have your forsaken me?"He's searching the canon of his spiritual understanding to make sense of God's apparent distance. David is asking for help and he doesn't feel like God is responding. He doesn't hear him. Yet, as David keeps praying, it becomes increasingly clear that he's learning to responding to what God has already said.

Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

The psalmist reaches back to the past; to something he's heard before, something he and his readers have already experienced. It's like he's reminding himself who he's praying to and how to pray to him. God is not the one who forsakes. God is the one who is holy, completely in control, and trustworthy. He rescues his people, he doesn't let them get swallowed by shame.

So often I'm driven to prayer by my emotions and need. And that's a good thing. God wants us to cry out to him in our lack. Yet, in our weakness it's good to rehearse the dialect of our faith. It's good to read what God has already said. It's his Word that teaches us who we're talking to and how to speak to him. In fact, that's exactly what Jesus did on the cross. In his own need, he goes back to the language developed through relationship. He says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

So, if you're stuck, not sure what or how to pray. Opening up the Bible is a good place to start praying, again.