God hears your prayers – even those that aren’t expressed in fully-formed words

Sometimes in my classes, a little assignment that expects a brief response (such as an online discussion) will yield deep and thoughtful responses from some persons.  The thoughts shared below happened like that.  Lizzie Kogler offered some heartfelt musings about the prayers of our hearts.

Thoughts concerning prayer

by Lizzie Kogler

Think back to a time when everything in your life seemed to be going completely wrong.  You lay awake at night thinking about how full your plate was, but how empty your stomach was, or about how many duties and obligations you had, but how little energy you had. When there was nowhere left to turn, did you close your eyes and pray?

For me, this is the kind of pray-er I have become. I have become someone who keeps trudging through the muddy streets of life, gradually slowing down, until I fall face-first into the stinky goo. Then and only then are my prayers passionate, a pleading cry for help.

Do you ever fall into this same trap of holding out until prayer is your last resort? It's not like I think that God isn't powerful enough or present enough to save me. It is more my sinful nature of wanting to think that I by myself am enough to get through life. And then, time and time again, I fall down on my knees looking upwards toward the cross, still stained in red.

So this leads me to a question concerning prayer. 

In the Large Catechism, Martin Luther wrote, "Let people learn to value prayer as something great and precious and to make a proper distinction between babbling and praying for something."  I don’t disagree with Luther … but I also wonder.  Are there ever times that our babbling (or what might seem like babbling) indeed is prayer?

Certainly there is a difference between mere babbling and true prayer.  According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, "Babbling is talking rapidly and continuously in a foolish, excited, or incomprehensible way" … whereas prayer was defined by Jesus this way:  "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others ... But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen ... And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:5-8).

Are there times where we are foolish, excited, or hard to understand? Absolutely, we are human. But this does not mean that we should not come to the Lord in prayer, for fear of the sin of babbling. Jesus encourages us to cast all our anxieties on him, because he cares for us (cf. 1 Peter 5:7).  This means coming to Jesus with an open heart, ready to hear his forgiveness, peace, and comfort.

I will admit that sometimes I am afraid to pray. I am not worried about whether God is going to give me or not give me what I am asking for. I do not feel nervous about his plan for my life. It is more that I feel guilty for not praying as much as I could or should.  But then I remind myself that God is gracious and hears my prayers.   He hears your prayers too – even those that aren’t fully or perfectly formed into clear words.

Passages for prayerful encouragement:

In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.   From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

Psalm 18:6

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

James 1:6

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 

Hebrews 4:16

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

Romans 8:26

Two years of Electric Gospel

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  If you want to know something about St. Patrick (beyond the shamrocks and green beer you might see used in secular celebrations), The Metro Lutheran once published a nice article about "The Real Saint Patrick."  It's worth taking a few moments to read.

Something else is worth celebrating here in mid-March:  the second anniversary of this blog, The Electric Gospel.   Starting in March 2014, I began sharing here the spiritual writings of some of my students and acquaintances.

If you've just recently started connecting to this blog site, let me note for you some of the most popular items from the past 24 months.   The five most-read posts have been these:

#5:  "Jesus is Coming Back -- Are You Ready?" by Allison Wessel
#4:  "Thoughts on the Day of Pentecost" by David Sellnow
#3:  "Body-Building" by Tracy Siegler
#2:  "Lifted Up" by Naomi Unnasch
#1:  "You are Precious in His Sight" by Emily Hunt


Some other personal favorites of mine during the past year were:

• "Journeying toward Forgiveness" by Desiree Alge
• "We are Christ to our Neighbors" by Henry Tyson
• "Go and Tell in Love" by Kayli Pesch
• "Under Pressure" by Aaron Schwartz
• "Emboldened Witnesses" by Yaffet Gabayehu

Feel free to peruse the archives for other interesting items you may have missed.

And feel free to email things you're writing!

- David Sellnow

Never alone

by Miriam Willitz

"And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
- Matthew 28:20

            Have you ever felt alone? I’m sure we all have at some time in our lives. There are many reasons that we can feel alone. Maybe there has been a time when you were in a fight with a spouse or other family member and you didn’t talk for a while and you felt all alone. When we have to make big decisions that will make a lasting impact on us, we sometimes feel alone. I had a teacher in high school that we all called Dr. Z. He was married to his wife for more than forty years, and she died very suddenly not long ago. We cannot even begin to imagine the kind of loneliness Dr. Z is going through right now without his lifelong companion.

            People often feel lonely because they are Christian. They feel as though they are the only Christian in a whole world of unbelievers. That may seem true, even though it’s not.  Jesus is with us always.

           When Jesus promised to be with his disciples always, he was about to go up into heaven.  Jesus had been with them for three years, teaching them all that they needed to know. Every day for those years he constantly had been there with them, and now he was going back to where he’d been, and he wouldn’t be physically present with them anymore. Try to imagine how alone they felt without Jesus there with them. They watched him disappear from their sight, but Jesus gave them this great promise: that he would always be there with them, till the very end to time.  And along with that promise, he gave them a mission—to go out and tell the whole earth about how he’d died to take away the sins of all people (cf. Mark 16:15).  And his authority and his Spirit would accompany them in that mission (cf. Matthew 28:18, John 16:7-15).

            We, like the disciples, have that same promise and the same mission.  We feel lonely because we are sinful and weak, but our Savior Jesus is perfect and strong and has promised that his presence will always be with us, to the very end of time. This word from our Lord is so comforting because—in all situations where we have to make decisions and choices on our own—we know that Jesus is always there with us, helping us through and guiding us. When a loved one dies, someone who has always been close to us, we can be reassured that Jesus is still here with us to help us, as well as being in heaven to welcome that loved one home to him in faith.  Jesus is the perfect companion, who came to earth to suffer and die in our place, to pay for our wrongs. He rose again, victorious over death and the grave. And now in heaven, he is with us, protecting us. He is giving us the Holy Spirit to be in our hearts always to comfort and encourage us.   And he gives us the privilege of sharing his message with others as our life’s mission.

            Praise God!  Jesus is with us!

Prayer:

Dearest Jesus, thank you for all that you have done for us. Thank you for enduring the cruel death on Calvary and for rising from death. Thank you for always being there for us when we feel lonely and even when we don’t.  Strengthen us as we continue as missionaries for your name.  Amen.