Prayers

Reshaping Lopsided Prayer

by Terry Barlow
11/16/20
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I don't want to add too much to what's already written and said about prayer. Because, as with Bible study, there's been far more said about it and much more time invested in the talking about it than the actual doing of it. If all the words spoken about prayer and all time taken talking about the Bible had actually been employed in praying and studying the Bible, the world would be a far different and better place today. 
  Still, that being the case, allow me to say this much and I promise to be concise. When the demands of daily life press in upon us, prayer and Bible study are among the first things to be jettisoned. Or if we pray, we don't take time to listen. And if we read the Bible we don't go to the extent of studying it. True prayer, for example, is not a lopsided affair.  If we have only spoken to God but not listened we have not fully prayed. Prayer has rightly been called conversation and conversation is two sided or more depending on how many are participating. 
  We often make prayer into a one sided excuse for or an imposter of a conversation, hence, a lopsided conversation. We have all been in those "conversations" with others and, if we're honest we have to admit that those are not the talks we look forward to having. It is no different with God. He doesn't look forward to the kinds of prayers in which we do all the talking, if that is our habitual practice, that is. It's not the kind of encounter God enjoys, it's more like something He tolerates. It limits close fellowship.
  Another aspect of our relationship with God that can easily slip out of balance like tires going out of balance on a car is the proportion between asking and thanking or between petitions and praises. Children who are overeager to ask for new things before having expressed gratitude for the former things they have already received are not as appreciated by their parents as those who are continually grateful.
  We sometimes think we can ask big things because we have a big God. God certainly is a big God with a great big ❤giving heart. But if our requests are big so ought our praises and thanksgivings to be big in order to strike the correct balance in prayer. For instance, rather than asking God to "be with us" when He has already promised to be so, it would serve better to thank God heartily for that constant loving presence within.
   So those are three kinds of equilibrium that we need to find in prayer: the balance between talking about prayer and actually 🙏 praying, the balance between speaking and listening in prayer itself as well as the balance between asking and thanking/praising.