Simple Prayer

Often times prayer can seem intimidating and complicated. This can discourage us from investing in our prayer life with God and can keep us from living daily life with God. Yet be encouraged. Simple prayer opens up a whole new frontier of prayer and relationship with God that cultivates genuineness and authenticity with our Creator.

I often hide from God. The shame and guilt of my sin keeps me from being truthful with God, myself and others. Simple prayer washes away our shame and guilt, allowing us to come to God as we are. When we have thoughts or feelings we don't particularly enjoy, we can turn those into simple prayers. "God, I acknowledge to you that I'm judging this person." "God, I let my eye wander." "God, I recognize I based my worth and value on my own pride." When we can accept ourselves in our sin, we can come into a more genuine relationship with God.

We can also turn the more mundane into a simple prayer. We all work or study. And sometimes work or studying is not the most exciting thing in the world. But this can be an opportunity for practicing simple prayer. "God, this work isn't very exciting." "God, let's do this together." "God, want to spice things up a little?" We invite God to walk with us in the mundane through simple prayer.

At the core of simple prayer is genuineness with God. We become an open book and live transparently, whether with sin we try to avoid or in the routine of life. We invite God to walk with us.

What has helped me in simple prayer is the concept of think-praying. Simply put, we turn our thinking into prayers. We involve God in our thinking. I have found this helps me turn all that I do into prayer. Simple prayer. Nothing extravagant. Simply just you and God.





Jesus, would you teach grow us in simple prayer. Nothing extravagant. Just simply involving you in our thinking and routine of life. Amen.






Recommended readings to grow in simple prayer: 

• Prayer: Finding Heart's True Home, Richard Foster. 
•  Chapter 1: Simple Prayer