Do you know who prayed the longest prayer in the Bible?
Jesus. On the night of His betrayal. You find His prayer in John 17.
Jesus and the eleven had just left the Last Supper (John 14:31) and were on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:1). As they were walking Jesus prayed:
Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said…(John 17:1).
What I want you to notice is that in praying, Jesus simply “spoke” to the Father.
No rituals.
No book of prayers.
No praying from rote.
Just walking and talking to God.
Do you find it hard to pray? Sometimes, you may feel like you don’t have the beautiful, deeply impressive words of prayer that others have. But that’s not what counts with God.
At its most basic, God wants you to talk to Him. Always. You can talk to Him while you’re walking, working, cleaning the dishes, driving your commute, waiting in line at the grocery store, or mowing the lawn.
You can talk to God anywhere, at any time.
I try to call my dad, my sister, and my grandmother once a week. We don’t discuss world-changing events. We don’t have deep, life-changing conversations. We talk about the little things that are going on. The fact that we’re speaking is more important than what we’re speaking about. The deep conversations come in their own time. No need to force it. Talking to each other is an expression of the love we have for each other. We want to know what’s going on. We want to hear what the other person has to say, even if it’s about nothing much at all.
Some people don’t pray because it feels like too big of a production. If you feel you can’t pray to God, will you talk to Him instead?
