Word of Encouragement (1/15/2021)
We have been talking about experiencing “the sweet hour of prayer.” To do that, we need to give ourselves enough time and effort (at least initially) to work through all the distractions and racing thoughts that flood our minds when we sit down to pray. We also distinguished “the sweet hour of prayer” from the practice of mindfulness: it is something that results from our communion with God, not simply from being in tune with our feelings and sensations, etc. But what is this communion with God?
Today, I want to talk about the most basic idea about our communion with God, which is the essence of “the sweet hour of prayer.” How can there be communion with God unless there is unity between God and us? But this unity is not achieved by negotiations and compromises. That may be true in our communion with our fellow humans. But here, we are dealing with God. Because God is God—infinite in wisdom, sovereign in authority, perfect in all His ways—we cannot have true communion with God unless we submit to Him and His will fully, willingly, and gladly. There cannot be true communion with God unless He is the Sun and we are the planets.
This agrees with our experience. We experience “the sweet hour of prayer” when we come to surrender ourselves to God completely and gladly. It comes when we say most sincerely, after pouring our hearts out and offering up our desires to God, “Yet not my will but Your will be done” (Luke 22:42). As long as we insist on our will in opposition to both God’s known will and what God’s not-yet-known will might be, there can be no true communion with God and therefore no sweet hour of prayer.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we have to give up every desire of hours. We can experience the sweet hour of prayer when have the confidence that God has heard our prayers and He will answer us. But this confidence comes when we know that what we are praying for is in accordance with God’s will: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4); “this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us...” (1 John 5:14). The truth remains the same: the true tranquility and clarity of our minds and hearts can come only when we surrender ourselves completely to God.
If you have not experienced the sweet hour of prayer, what do you think is the problem? Is it simply that you are not spending enough time to push through distractions and racing thoughts or is it that you are still engaged in a tug-of-war with God? I realize that surrendering to God is even more difficult than spending more time in prayer. But, if we can see God for who He is, surrendering ourselves to God and His good and righteous will should be the easiest thing to do, right? Besides, doing a tug-of-war with God and trying to win is the most hopeless endeavor, don’t you think?
What are you struggling with God? Is it worth it? You will not win. And you are missing the opportunities to experience the blessedness of communing with God. Trust Him and surrender yourself to Him and experience the sweet hour of prayer.