Recently, my father came for a visit. We’ve been going through a very difficult time with one of my kids this spring, and my dad said, “I’m not sure there’s anything I can do, but I could come and be with you.” I took him up on the offer.
My father is a wise man with a gentle soul. While he was here we talked a bit about prayer. He told me, “When I pray, it is mostly of the type where I bring myself and my concerns into God’s presence and just stay there awhile. I don’t form requests; I simply stay awhile in his peace. And I stay with the person about whom I’m concerned in a ‘presence’ kind of way.”
There is something simple and beautiful about this approach. I’ve thought about it a lot and wondered why I don’t adopt it more often. The sad answer is that it’s because it’s more work. It’s easier to toss up a quick request in the middle of the day than it is to pause, clear my schedule, quiet my mind, focus on God, enter his presence and be with him.
One reason there are many ways to pray is that we don’t always have the opportunity for deep, quiet time. Then again, perhaps there are more opportunities to be with God than we think… if we make the effort to look for them.
