'Just' Prayer

With all due apologies to those who choose to use the word, 'Just', in prayer as though it is the spice of life, 'STOP IT!'

If you are praying for 'just living', with the emphasis on justice, okay. But, if you continually utilize the phraseology of, "God, we just ask this . . . ", or, "Lord, we just praise your Holy Name . . .", please, either be bold enough in prayer to ask and praise fully and completely or utilize another word occasionally, such a 'simply' or 'humbly'. The falseness of intention and/or the lack of time really spent thinking through what it is your heart is in conversation with God about fairly oozes out into the ears of those who deeply desire to be praying with you. As one who has many, many occasions to be in prayer with people from every walk of life and denominational bent, the word, 'just' is becoming a stumbling block precisely because I really try to pray with you - and find myself hitting the 'just' wall over and over and over again. "We just this," "We just that", "I just this", "I just that", "The world just this", well, you get the picture.

I have no doubt that there is a deep intention of wanting to be humble before God in prayer, but isn't the very fact that you are going to God in prayer at all a pretty profound statement of humility? Do you pray to everything or everybody? No. You are daring to approach the Throne of God, hat in hand, and talk with a friend . . . or at least that is what Jesus tells us we are to do. "I call you friend", says Jesus. "When you pray, say, 'Abba . . .", which in the Greek is an intimate expression of Father, probably more closely associated in the English language with 'Daddy'.

How powerful would that be if our private, as well as our public, conversations with God would begin, "Daddy"? 'Daddy, I love You. I don't 'just' love You, I love You.' 'Daddy, I am grateful for the beautiful day of which we are allowed to be a part. I am not 'just' grateful, Daddy I am profoundly, unabashedly, grateful.' The difference, at least in my ears, is the difference between being invited into an intimate relational conversation that is full disclosure from the very beginning and being asked to stand at the door while someone else takes care of business for me.

God hears every prayer. I have no doubt of that, in fact I truly depend on that for my own soul. What truly remains a mystery to me, though, is what becomes of our prayers when the pattern of our words, or a particular word, comes to mean more than the spirit in which they are spoken. When 'just' becomes the crutch or connector for a sentence, rather than a spiritual commitment to walking in love with the One who desires to share our every thought and experience, does our praying become 'just' 'simply' the babbling of so many words in a hope to stimulate some sort of effect in the listeners around us? I don't know, for I do not know the hearts of those who 'just' pray all the time, but I do know I want to pray with you, even as I am praying for you now, with what small reserve of words with which I am blessed.

God hears every prayer . . . and I am praying that God's Justice not strike me down for desiring more than 'just' praying. But, most of all, in the Spirit of prayer, I pray you keep praying. I pray we all keep praying, no matter the words we use . . . for we need to speak our prayers more than God needs us to utter them. In so doing, the door is opened for the Spirit to enter and who knows what transformation may occur in that moment. It 'just' may change the world.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don