Infinite Ways to Communicate

Prayer is simply communicating with God. And just like in any healthy relationship, it’s important to talk about the ways you are communicating. It’s also important (and fun!) to hear how other healthy people communicate with the people they are in relationships with.

So today, we’re going to talk about how we talk with God – aka, prayer. 😊
 
Prayer is our avenue to encounter God’s Father Heart, hear His voice, worship Him, ask Him questions, adore Him, learn from Him, experience Him, enjoy Him, receive comfort from Him, confess to Him, love on Him – the list goes on. We can do it with words or without.

We can do it by ourselves, with friends, with strangers, in corporate settings, in our journal, in song, in painting, in scripture and more.

Are you seeing my point?

There are as many types of prayers, times to pray, and ways to pray as there are ideas in your head … and more.

This is because God is infinite and there are thus infinite ways, even within our limited human understanding, to talk with Him.

And one of my favorite ways to pray? Listening.

Let me say that differently – one of my favorite ways to encounter God is by listening to Him, and I do that in prayer, specifically prophetic prayer. When I step into my secret place with God I don’t say “oh let me do prophetic prayer.” Hahaha no. I simply come to Him with a heart posture ready to listen and receive whatever God says. Sometimes I’ll ask about a specific person. Sometimes I’ll ask about Wesley. Other times I’ll ask about Athens or UGA.
 
I simply come to God ready to hear His thoughts and opinions on matters because He is my Friend and I care about His thoughts and opinions. He’s also my God and Shepherd so I care about His guidance, His design, His everything.

And guess what? God is really good at responding to us.

We aren’t so good at trusting His response.

I think it’s because God speaks to us in ways we can understand, and that freaks us out. We often invalidate His responses because we think God should be more profound or show up in burning bushes all the time. I think it scares us to think God trusts us to hear His voice. I think we feel inadequate. This shows me we have room to grow in understanding of who we are as the dearly beloved of God. Dear friend, He wants to speak with us. He longs to speak with you.
 
As I’ve grown in hearing God’s voice, I’ve realized how profound it is that the God of the universe would choose to speak to us through our senses, our mind’s eye (aka our imagination), our feelings, our memories, and more. He could show up in signs and wonders if He pleased but instead, He often chooses the whisper. That shows me He is very personal. 
 
In this season of my life I am learning how prayer gets to be integrated into every aspect of my day.

I remember when I first read Paul’s encouragement to the first-century church in Thessalonica to “pray continually” I was daunted at this “task.” I thought to myself “ummm… I don’t know if I actually want to talk to God all the time.” I remember thinking it was a religious duty that I didn’t want to partake in. True story.
 
But as the Holy Spirit has grown me in love with the Father, I’ve actually found myself desiring to commune with Him more and more. But let me be clear, I definitely did not wake up one day and immediately enjoy prayer. It took time. It took building trust. And while I was building trust with God, it took faith to know one day I would enjoy prayer.

And now prayer is easily my favorite thing in the world because prayer is simply communicating with God, and He happens to be my favorite.

But prayer isn’t always easy. Nor is it cheap. Pursuing a deep prayer life has often cost me worldly comfort as I’ve laid down my desire to please people. Pursuing a deep prayer life has also been an act of sacrificing my time but I rarely see it as a sacrifice when the One I am communing with has The Word to eternal life.

His Word tells us He is the vine and His Father is the vinedresser. We are the branches. Jesus is our life source and He is our friend. And as His branches we get to stay in constant connection with Him. How? You guessed it – PRAYER!!

And you know what? I’ve always believed the mark of a good friendship is a conversation that never ends. Paul was getting at something when he said to pray continually 😉.

And as we pray continually we are strengthening our side of connection to God. And from there we will naturally grow to be fruitful.

So friend, go out there and talk with God. Get alone in your car or your journal and just talk with Him as you would your friend. Listen to Him. He loves you and He longs to speak with you more than you even realize.
 
Peace,
 Author | Samantha Richey

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