Prayer

How can I get closer to God?

Drawing close to God entails opening your heart to him (or her). Deuteronomy 4:29 tells us, “From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.” God desires to be found by us primarily because he will never force himself upon us. He loves us too much to do that. We are not puppets, instead we are his beloved. In Psalm 42:1 we find, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.” This means that within us there is a deep, deep longing to grow closer to God and he will answer that call. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, wrote in the 4th century, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

Finally, in terms of how one goes about drawing closer to God, you might look toward spiritual formation through the use of spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines are activities such as praying, reading the Bible, engaging in worship, solitude, silence, service, and communing with others who are seeking the same things, just to name a few. A resource you may want to use is A Spiritual Formation Workbook by James Bryan Smith and Lynda Graybeal. You may also want to ponder the question, “How is God trying to get closer to me?”

Does prayer “work”? How?

Yes, I definitely believe prayer works. Your second question, however, is the tough one that has been pondered and written about for ages by a large number of scholarly folks. Because we have a Western scientific mind, we often want to see the cause and effect of prayer. By faith however, we can take a different approach to prayer and begin to experience and enjoy the mystery of prayer. Paul writes in Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” So, we first reach out to the Holy Spirit, which is God’s energy and power in the world, as we begin to pray. I am wondering what have been your experiences with prayer?

Back to your first question – does prayer work? In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down, without one shot being fired. This happening, can in part, be traced back to people in Leipzig, Germany who had been praying at St. Nicholas Kirche in that East German city for quite awhile. Some people attribute the drop of the Iron Curtain, rightfully so, to Pope John Paul II of the Vatican, President Ronald Reagan of the United States, and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union. I believe the humble prayers of the people of Leipzig also had much to do with this event. You might find this an interesting story to read about. If you are interested in learning more about prayer, I recommend Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard Foster, Ten Prayers that Changed the World by Jean-Pierre Isbouts, and The Source of Miracles: 7 Steps to Transforming Your Life through the Lord’s Prayer by Kathleen McGowan.