Spiritual Survival Guide
6: Keeping It Going: Moving Beyond Survival Mode
Being honest with God also means telling him what’s really on your mind. If you have something specific to tell him, then be specific. Don’t hide what you really want. Say, “God, I don’t know if it’s right or not, but here’s what I really want.” Don’t cover up how you really feel. And if you’re frustrated with circumstances or angry with him—then tell him. Again, God really appreciates honesty and can deal with it. Of course, one of the biggest barriers to “being ourselves” is our pride. Most of us don’t like to put our weakness or neediness on display. Our pride makes us cover it up. But it’s like having a wound we won’t show the doctor: God doesn’t heal what we won’t uncover. The Bible has great advice on this point. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxi- ety on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:5-7). How can we ever hope to feel the mighty hand of God who cares for us if we won’t show him the real us? Just be yourself. 2. Find your rhythm. Discover what works best for you. For example, some of us can’t think straight in the morning, so morning prayers are never going to work well. Some of us are at our best at night. Some of us need twenty minutes just to settle down long enough to begin to pray, so we need to give ourselves plenty of time. When you find your- self running out of things to say to God after five minutes, you may be better off keeping it short. Try experimenting with different times of day. The morning can be a great time to set up the day and entrust it to God. Lunch break can be a kind of half-way check-in. And the evening can be a good time to review how things have gone. While you’re at it, try alternating between praying alone and with someone else (if you can find someone to do this with you). It can be a great encouragement and inspiration to hear and share in the prayers of someone else, especially if you’re new to the practice of prayer.
3. Tune in. Often we get so focused on what we want to say to God that we forget to listen. In our rush to be heard, we don’t slow down or quiet down enough to pick up what he might be trying to say to us in return. God really wants to listen to us—but he also wants us to be patient enough to listen to what he’s saying. The problem is, many of us are not patient people. In fact, there’s a famous passage in the Bible that says, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). The sad truth is, lots of us have gotten ourselves into a world of trouble over the years precisely because we were unwilling to be still, and unwilling to know that God alone was God—and that we weren’t. Prayer can be a time to listen carefully, to tune in to God’s wave- length—and to see the world as God sees it. Try visualizing yourself standing alongside God, looking at the world. Imagine how God already feels about things, about how much he already cares, about how much his heart breaks. Open yourself up to a God’s-eye view of things. Put things (including your own problems) in this bigger perspective. And then go back and stand in your own situation again. Notice how
much smaller your problems look now. Tune in to God’s view of things and let it change your own perspective. One helpful way to be tuned in is to keep track of how often God actually answers prayer. We’re usually so busy worrying about “the next thing” that we forget to give thanks for “the last thing”! That’s why some people talk about how helpful it’s been for them to keep a prayer journal where they
Something I’ve done recently is commit to give prayer real time and real thought— to stay away from mindless mumbling. —Dan
jot down what they’re praying for so that they can go back later and see how things turned out. More often than not, their prayer journals read
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