Why Your Prayer Life Doesn’t Have to Be a Certain Way

Posted on Apr 11, 2017 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Hope Lyda

“How’s your prayer life?”

When I hear someone say this, first I hope they aren’t talking to me. Then my imagination and sense of humor team up and I envision myself existing in some parallel life where I wear a white frock, cinched in the middle with a satin sash, and go about my day enshrouded in a holy mist as I shop for cat food, scrub my bathroom floor, and emit prayers for world peace.

This isn’t real. (And I know it isn’t real because I’m cleaning my floors.)

In my journey of talking to God, however, I have experienced something that is real. Life is a prayer. All of life. Every moment is an invitation to experience God.

How have you encountered or lived out prayer in the past? How about now? Do you bow your head and kneel? Do you wait until you’re in sanctuaries or seated in pews to pray? Do you lace up worn hiking boots and head for the trail to have your most intimate conversations with the Creator? Is prayer still an ethereal idea that hasn’t yet taken on flesh and substance in your day-to-day existence?

The big shift in how I view prayer happened when I accompanied my husband through a long health journey. Initially I prayed frequently and fervently over decisions and for healing, resolution, next steps, and insight. But as months in the trenches of the unknown turned into years, speaking the same prayers added to the weariness. I found myself saying “Ditto” as my prayer because I had nothing new to take to God. The needs were the same. My gratitude for provision and care remained genuine. But I was tired.

I wondered if I was ending my perpetual thread of dialogue with God.

Had I lost my way into easy conversation with the Creator? The answer was no. I felt more in tune with him. I was encountering Christ in those trenches. So what was happening?

I wasn’t losing touch with God. After years of talking to him and writing more than 20 prayer books and devotionals, I was expanding my view of what it meant to interact with Jesus. I was increasing my ability and willingness to lean into the Spirit and seek hope and leading.

I noticed that my gratitude wasn’t saved for a specific time of prayer but was expressed in the moment and through the moment. God’s responses and my understanding of them were unveiled in the everyday encounters and experiences that were and still are becoming profound and more vivid despite my fatigue. I’m learning to be with Jesus as I live, breathe, sleep, awaken, weep, laugh, connect, hope, fumble, eat, walk…and yes, pray.

We experience life as a prayer when we begin a day willing to look at and respond to people, circumstances, questions, awakenings, and challenges with God’s heart.