Chapter 19

We Need to Pray....And Listen

If society-at-large is overcome by spiritual denial and even religious organizations are susceptible to it, where can we ultimately go for authoritative spiritual guidance? There is but one answer: to God.

God wants us to love and be loved. He wants us to love him and to accept love from him, acknowledging him for who he is. He wants us to love the totality of his creation in a personal relationship of subordination and dependence on him. Unless we are willing to do that, we are incapable of becoming spiritually healthy.

But we’re victims of our sinful condition. We’ve been preconditioned to accept the beliefs of spiritual denial. We’re constantly surrounded by those who deny their spiritual needs and want us also to deny ours: “A little religion is good for a person, but it shouldn’t be taken too seriously.”

We need to learn to communicate with God. We need to learn to pray with expectation. Not with flowery, rhythmic phrases, but with honesty. Not only in formal prayer sessions, but constantly. God is constantly present and constantly available. We need to pray for an awareness of his presence. If we’re sincere, he’ll give it to us.

We need to pray that our needs are met. God loves us. He is more concerned with our needs than with our wants. If we’re dependent on him and acknowledge him for whom he is, then we can sincerely ask for his will instead of ours.

We need to pray for the wisdom, insight, and understanding that he wants us to have. He’ll reveal those things to us if we allow him to do it.

We need to pray for constant reassurance. Those around us will view us and judge us according to the values and the messages of spiritual denial. If we fail to share their conventional wisdom they’ll see us as fools. We’ll be viewed with suspicion and distrust for challenging society’s denial of its spiritual needs. God will give us a sense of identity, worth, and security that can’t be shaken by society’s judgments.

We need to pray for forgiveness. God understands our preconditioning and our environment. He knows that we can fall prey to spiritual denial even as we willfully desire to do his will. God will forgive us because he knows both our frailties and our intent.

We need to pray for comfort. While those around us perpetuate denial to avoid the pain of confronting feelings of insecurity, worthlessness, and questioned identity, we need to face the pain of healthy growth. Our spiritual needs cannot be met until we acknowledge them. Acknowledging fear and uncertainty can be painful. God will give us comfort.

We need to pray for a greater ability to love God and the totality of his creation. We need to view those who hide behind spiritual denial as spiritually ill instead of as objects to be judged by us. We need to be willing to challenge their denial because our love is concerned with their needs rather than appeasing it in response to their wants.

We need to pray to see the beauty of God’s creation, recognizing both the majesty and the wonder of his love. Even in the midst of sin, the splendor of his work can give us reassurance.

We need to pray prayers of thanks. For all he’s given us. For all he’s done for us. For all he gives us the opportunity to do.

We need to pray for guidance and protection. We may be subject to being misled by those who would have us place our primary dependence on someone or something other than God. If we seek God’s guidance and protection, he’ll give it.

We need to pray that we’re receptive to his revelations. We need to be open to receive God wherever and whenever he reveals himself to us. It may be through religious books, through other people, through religious organizations, or it may be in another way that we’d never have considered. We mustn’t limit God, through our own preconceived notions, from revealing himself whenever or wherever he chooses. If we sincerely seek his revelations, we’ll find them.

We need to pray that we’re receptive to his will in our lives. Only by responding to God’s will can we be spiritually healthy. Only by responding to God’s will can we be where he wants us when he wants us to be there, doing what he wants us to do. If we allow God’s will and live according to the purpose for which we were created, God will give us absolute identity, absolute security, absolute worth, and eternal spiritual health.

Praying can be pretty easy. If we simply prayed that God’s will be done for all people in all places at all times, we’d encompass just about everything that’s listed above. Listening isn’t that easy.

Listening to God requires quiet time away from the distractions of life. Two hundred years ago 90% of our population worked on farms. Whether plowing the fields, hunting or fishing for dinner, or simply walking to a neighboring farm, they had inadvertent quiet time. That time just isn’t available for most of us unless we make it. I mentioned that sin is anything that prevents or distracts us from having a personal relationship with God and learning his will for us. We are a society that is overloaded with distractions. Within the relatively recent past we’ve invented the railroad, the telephone, the automobile, the airplane, motion pictures, television, the transistor, phonograph records, magnetic cassettes, CD’s, DVD’s, computers, video games, cell phones, the internet and the list goes on and on. In addition to these inventions numerous groups and individuals are actively competing for whatever time and resources we might have available for their causes or programs. Our ancestors had fewer of those things with which to contend. Though they were busy, they had more time to themselves for listening and reflection.

Praying without listening for response is at best a monologue and at worst a meaningless ritual. Making the time to listen with expectation and without distraction is critical to having a personal relationship with God.