Intimate Prayer

Question: What do you talk to God about? (Entertain several responses)

Small children learn to pray a thanksgiving prayer for the food, or for their grandparents, or for some special occasion.

Older kids and teenagers learn to pray for the things they need or want. These needs focused prayers can often dominate our experience. “Lord, thank you for the food” or “Lord, please help me pass that test. Sorry I forgot to study for it.” or “Lord, my mom or grandma or some other family member needs to be healed from a really bad disease. Please save their life.”

These are all good prayers. God loves to give good gifts to His children. But they aren’t very mature prayers.

When I was a kid I knew my dad to be the guy who worked at a hydraulics company. He was the guy who led out in pathfinders at church. He was the guy who taught a Sabbath School lesson. And he was the guy who fixed our cars when they broke down. I knew he had the family resources, so if I needed something or wanted something, I’d ask him. He usually said no, just for the record.

Today, I have an 8 year old and a 6 year old. By far the largest amount of communication from my kids is what they want from me. “Can I play a game? Could you buy me a toy? Can I do this? Would you do that?” I love my kids, and I’m sure my dad loved me. But as an adult, I don’t find their conversation very stimulating. The way they communicate with me is very immature.

Someday soon, they’re going to be teenagers and the way they’re going to communicate will change slightly. They’ll be more independent and more knowledgeable, and I hope more interesting to talk to. But they’re still going to be mostly about themselves. I’m sure I’ll hear them asking to borrow the car, or go somewhere with a friend. They’ll ask me about money for school projects, or some other need of theirs. And then there’s going to be the arguments and fights over the family rules—I’m sure that’s going to be a blast. But again, as an adult, my conversations with my teenagers are going to be somewhat under-stimulating. I will love to talk with them, and hear about their life—what little they’ll be willing to tell me about.

The time I’m looking forward to is when they’re a little bit older With a little more life experience under their belt. They will speak to me in the language of adulthood. The language of relationship. We’ll have things in common and, hopefully, talk about things that are mutually interesting to us. I found that shortly after I got married, my dad and I had a lot more to talk about. Work, home repairs, married life, and later children were all interesting subjects to explore TOGETHER. I can tell my dad about something that’s happening with my kids, and he’ll tell me about how he and my mom handled that issue with my sister and me. Conversations with my dad aren’t the one-sided, self-focused, conversations of my childhood. Now they are an interaction where both of us share from our hearts and both of us listen carefully to understand the other.

God loves the prayers of little children. They are simple. They are humble. They are surrendered.

God loves the prayers of youth. Though youth often wonder if their prayers are even getting past the ceiling.

Have you ever felt that way before? That maybe God wasn’t even paying attention to your prayers?

There’s an immaturity to that kind of prayer. It’s not a bad thing. Maturing is something that happens with age and experience. The more time you have with God, the more you’ll understand how to communicate with him.

What I'd like to explore today is a more mature way of praying. Not the “lord give me” kind of prayers, or the “thank you God” kind of prayers, but a two-way interchange between you and God.

There are a couple main points to prayer: 1) to reveal ourselves and surrender our hearts to God, and 2) to know God, to know His plans for our life and our world, and to follow closely after Him.

Satan would really like us to think that prayer isn’t a big deal:

The idea that prayer is not essential is one of Satan's most successful devices to ruin souls. Prayer is communion with God, the Fountain of wisdom, the Source of strength, and peace, and happiness. {CG 518.1}

He wants us to have dull, repetitive prayer lives:

In many cases the morning and evening worship is little more than a mere form, a dull, monotonous repetition of set phrases in which the spirit of gratitude or the sense of need finds no expression. The Lord accepts not such service. But the petitions of a humble heart and contrite spirit He will not despise. The opening of our hearts to our heavenly Father, the acknowledgment of our entire dependence, the expression of our wants, the homage of grateful love --this is true prayer. {CG 518.3}

Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him. {SC 93.2}

David expressed his regular practice like this:

Ps 55:17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.

I could talk to you about prayer, but instead lets practice prayer.

[break crowd into groups of four]

We’re going to pray together, but we’re not going to ask God for anything, or thank him for the mundane things in life. There are only two things that we’re going to do:

We’re going to say all kinds of adoring things about God.

If you want to know what that’s like, turn to Daniel 4:34-35…

Daniel 4:34–35 ESV

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Nebuchadnezar came out of a really hard experience with a brand new perspective about God. He recognized God as the holy, almighty, God of creation, and the King of the universe. This revelation of God brought out a unique and specific expression of adoration.

What has happened in your life that has revealed God to you? And what has it revealed about God?

If you’re struggling to find personal experience that would help you know God, then go to the Bible and adore him for the things the Bible reveals. Psalm 145 is a great place to start, or even God’s own revelation about Himself in Exodus 34:5-7.

2. We’re going to reveal ourselves to God.

There a lot of things we can reveal about ourselves. Our feelings, both good and bad. Our doubts. Our amazement. Our curiosities. Our questions. Our hopes and dreams. Our plans and our ideas.

This type of interaction is quite intimate, which is why I asked you to get into groups of people you know. These are your friends and much of what you might reveal to God, your friends already know.

One of the categories of things you could reveal to god are your sins. This isn’t where I’m inviting you to go right now. I’m asking you to tell God about you. What’s the favorite thing you have in your closet, and why? What’s something interesting you learned recently? Who have you recently enjoyed spending time with? What questions do you have about God or the Bible? These are the Kinds of things that reveal your heart to God. He knows these things already, but like a parent, he wants to explore them with you. It may be hard to share some of these things in the context of your friends, so don’t feel bad if there’s not much of this going on. But I hope having been introduced to it, you might add this kind of conversation into your prayer life.

Let’s take the next 5 minutes and prayer in our groups. Remember, only adoration of God, or revelations about your heart to God. When you’ve run out of things to talk about, then close your prayer time together and wait silently while the rest finish their prayer time.

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There is one additional thing I’d like you to add Into your prayer time—listening to God. In any good conversation you’ll share something from your own heart and your friend will respond. Then they’ll share something from their heart and you’ll respond. Prayer is alwayes a two-way street, but we rarely stop to listen to God.

God speaks back to us in two ways. First, through His word. When you read the Bible, you should see it as God’s words to you. However long ago the words were written, pretend that God wrote them just today and just for you. He will often give you answers to your questions or your curiosities if you’ll just open the Bible and let Him take you where He wants you to go. But God also speaks to us through the Holy Spirit impressing our minds. He sometimes brings back scripture that we’ve read before, but often He quietly speaks to our heart, impressing us which decision we should make, or how He feels about something that’s going on in our lives.

Along with surrendering yourself to Him, taking the time to listen to God is one of the most significant things you can do in prayer.

If you haven’t had an active prayer life with Jesus, then I’d Like to invite you to start one. Tonight, before you go to bed, do two things: 1) reveal your heart to God with all its ugliness and all its beauty. Tell him about your day. Tell him what you’re feeling, what your’e struggling with, who Is making the biggest impact on your life right now… or whatever comes To you mind. And then 2) ask God to take you—all of you with all your coolness and all your junk—and be your Lord, your Father, and your Friend. You might find yourself praying for 2 or 3 minutes, or you might find yourself having one of those deep conversations that only the darkness of night allows. It’s from these types of intimate conversations with God that you’ll truly experience His love for you. I hope you’ll make prayer a big priority in your life of faith.