Everyone prays. Some people say “grace” at meals. Some recite bedtime prayers. Some pray with beads or knotted ropes. Some pray in Jesus’ name and others in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Some pray to Yahweh, while others pray to Allah or “the universe.”
Some pray daily and others pray sporadically. Some pray knowingly; others pray without realizing it, characterizing their practice as sending out “positive energy” into the world around them. I even knew an atheist who occasionally prayed, saying it was a way of more or less “hedging my bets.”
When Jesus spoke to his contemporaries about prayer, he didn’t say, “If you pray.” He said, “When you pray…” (Matthew 6:5, Luke 11:2). He assumed that they prayed. Maybe because they—or at least the vast majority of them—were Jews, which meant that they prayed (several times a day, in fact). But it may also have been because they were all human, and prayer is a natural instinct to human beings.
We may not always realize when we are praying. In times of disappointment or upheaval, we may cry out, “Why?” or “Why me?” or “Why this?” without a moment’s thought of who we are asking. When a pleasant surprise or unexpected blessing comes our way, it’s only natural to feel a surge of gratitude arise in our hearts and souls, though we may never consciously identify it as a prayer.
Sometimes a single word—“please” or “no!”—escapes our lips without our knowing we’ve made a sound. At other times our prayer may be nothing more articulate than a quick exhale or intake of air or even a pleading look or a falling tear.
So one way to pray is retrospectively. That is, each evening, in addition to whatever prayers you say, why not review your day and the prayers you prayed, perhaps without realizing at the time that they were prayers?
Then, repeat them to your loving Heavenly Father, subtracting or adding as necessary, and submit them knowingly, purposefully, to the care of a loving God who hears your prayers…even when you didn’t know you were praying.
Adapted from The Red Letter Prayer Life by Bob Hostetler (Barbour Books 2015)
