What If Prayer Is More Than Talking to God?

By Pastor J

Maybe we have made prayer too small.

For many people, prayer means closing your eyes for thirty seconds, asking God for something, saying amen, and then returning to the exact same patterns of thinking and living.

But what if prayer is bigger than a request?

What if another dimension of prayer is spiritual awareness?

What if prayer is alignment—becoming conscious of the principles that govern life and bringing our thoughts, character, decisions, relationships, and actions into agreement with them?

That changes the conversation.

You Can Talk About God and Still Violate the Principles You Pray About

You can meet someone who talks about God twenty-four hours a day. They pray constantly. They quote Scripture. God is included in almost every conversation.

Yet their relationships are broken because of how they treat people. They lack integrity. They refuse correction. They don’t honor commitments. Their attitude pushes people away.

Eventually, we have to ask:

If your conversations with God never influence your conversations with people, what is prayer producing in you?

Then you can meet an atheist who doesn’t believe in God at all, yet that person practices discipline, respects people, keeps their word, takes responsibility, treats their family well, works hard, and demonstrates remarkable character.

I’m not talking about who has more money.

I’m talking about fruit.

The religious person may have more spiritual vocabulary while the nonreligious person is unknowingly practicing principles that produce healthier outcomes.

That should make us think.

Spiritual Laws Don’t Require Religious Vocabulary

Gravity doesn’t ask whether you believe in it.

There are principles of cause and effect that operate whether we acknowledge them or not.

Plant nothing, and nothing grows.

Treat people poorly long enough, and relationships deteriorate.

Practice discipline consistently, and capacity increases.

Give generously, and generosity changes both communities and people.

Refuse accountability, and eventually your blind spots become patterns.

These aren’t rituals.

They are observations about how life works.

I call many of them spiritual laws because I believe their ultimate source is God. Someone else may describe them as universal principles, wisdom, human behavior, or cause and effect.

We don’t have to use the same vocabulary to recognize the principle.

Maybe Prayer Is Also Awareness

This gives us another way to think about prayer:

Prayer is communication, but prayer can also cultivate awareness.

Awareness of God.

Awareness of yourself.

Awareness of your patterns.

Awareness of other people.

Awareness of what your current choices are producing.

Awareness of what needs to change.

Prayer shouldn’t only change what you’re asking for.

Prayer should eventually change the person who is asking.

That’s where transformation begins.

Your Lifestyle Should Become Your Prayer

Some prayers need words.

There are moments when we intercede for someone who is hurting, sick, grieving, or facing something beyond our ability to change.

There are moments when all we can do is believe.

But there are other prayers where the answer requires our participation.

You can’t continually pray for better relationships while refusing to communicate differently.

You can’t pray for opportunity and refuse preparation.

You can’t pray for financial stability while ignoring every principle of stewardship.

You can’t pray for better health while refusing every reasonable opportunity to care for yourself.

You can’t pray for your community and never serve anybody in it.

At some point, movement has to meet intention.

Put Hands and Feet to Your Prayers

Prayer isn’t a substitute for responsibility.

Prayer can create the awareness that tells you where responsibility begins.

Maybe that’s one reason some people have become disillusioned with religion. They were introduced to a version of prayer that sounded like:

Ask God. Wait. Ask again.

But perhaps a fuller picture is:

Ask.
Listen.
Become aware.
Examine your patterns.
Align your thinking.
Change what needs changing.
Move when movement is required.
Trust God with what remains outside your control.

That’s different.

Prayer becomes more than an event.

It becomes a way of functioning.

Your kindness becomes a prayer.

Your integrity becomes a prayer.

Your discipline becomes a prayer.

How you treat people becomes a prayer.

Your willingness to forgive becomes a prayer.

Your decision to serve becomes a prayer.

Your courage to change becomes a prayer.

And sometimes the most powerful prayer you’ll ever pray won’t be spoken.

It will be lived.

Put hands and feet to your prayers.