One thing that I have been trying to do lately is get closer to God.  My prayer life and my quiet time are severely lacking right now so I have been trying to fix that.  Some days I do really good, and other days I don’t.  I normally try to blame it on a busy schedule.  I won’t deny that I have a pretty hectic schedule at times, but I also can’t deny that isn’t a very good reason to be missing my daily dose of God.

I am subscribed to an email listing that sends a prayer to my email every day.  I’m not sure if this is cheating or not, but I have found it very rewarding to be able to add a random topic to my prayers as I go…helping me to give thanks in ALL things, not just the things I am thinking about at the current moment.

About two weeks ago I met with a group of close friends where we sat down and studied through some scripture and just talked about things going on in our lives.  One of the things that we all said was we wanted to get closer to God and put him first.  I don’t really believe in coincidences, I believe that God puts things in front of us exactly when we need it.  So when I received this particular prayer in my email the next morning, it was a Godsend for me.  I have been saying this specific prayer twice a day for the past two weeks.  I’m not saying that everyone should find a prayer and pray the exact same thing over and over again and limit themselves to that, but I am saying that this prayer, in connection with tons of other prayers I have prayed over the past two weeks, has really begun to bring me closer to God again.

I’ve felt closer in the past week than I have in a while.  I’m not going to lie, lately I have been doing so much stuff for people and church that I think I started to forget that I should be doing it for Jesus.  We can have the best intentions in the world, but if they aren’t for the right reasons then they mean nothing.  We can do good things for selfish reasons.

Anyway, I just rambled way more than I intended to…so here is the prayer that I received that has been helping me to get focussed during my daily time with God.

Oh God my Father,
I want to KNOW You.
You are so great and do great things.  I want to spend more time with You.
Help me to make time to sit before Your throne in quiet places,
to read Your Word in order to know You more intimately,
to develop an ear to hear Your voice so that I know when to turn to the right or to the left.
I trust You to guide me in all things.
I thank you for Your gift of the Holy Spirit, my “ever-present help.”
In Jesus’ name I come before You, amen.

*from PrimeTime with God by Churchgrowth.org

What was the purpose of all that?  If you are feeling far from God, or even if you don’t know Jesus personally but you arrived here because you are looking for something and you don’t know what that something is…just say a prayer.  Just sit down by yourself, somewhere quiet, and say a prayer.  It doesn’t matter what you say, you don’t need big fancy words or anything else.  Heck, you don’t even need to know WHAT you are praying for sometimes.  God knows it all, and He just wants to spend time with you.

I sat down a few days ago after work, it had been a long day, I was stressed, I still had a million things to do.  But I took a few minutes to just sit there in silence.  I shut my office door, sat in the floor of my closet, and closed my eyes.  I didn’t know what to say, my mind was so blown from the day that I was just at a loss for words and for thoughts, but I sat there and simply told God I wanted to spend a little time with Him if for no other reason than just to be in His presence.  And it was awesome, I was only in that closer for 10 minutes maybe, and it renewed me for the rest of the afternoon.

I’m not saying that we should never come to God without knowing what we want to speak to Him about.  I firmly believe that praying specifically, intently, passionately, and repeatedly for exactly what you want to say is one of the most powerful ways to pray.  I’m just saying that it’s ok to just sit with God and let Him do the talking if you don’t know what to say.  God wants to spend time with you, not your words.

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:5-8