Chapter 3: On Prayer

(This section begins Chapter 3 of the book Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life. One of the most important elements, in my mind, in walking through the dark valley of trials and suffering and coming out the other side whole and stronger, is communication with God. Therefore, I have written this chapter on Prayer. Not an exhaustive study of prayer, mind you, but things shared from my heart and experience of prayer. Again, I’m blogging portions of the chapters I’ve written, not the entire book. Send me your helpful comments.)

Chapter Three–On Prayer

Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with

Spirit can meet–

Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands

and feet.[1]

Prayer is as integral a part of my life as breathing. I cannot imagine not being able to pray because prayer is communicating with God; talking to Him in the ordinary days of life, sometimes crying out to Him with tears in the trying times of life.

One morning, as my husband and I sat on our porch to pray together, we waited in silence, enjoying the beauty of the day. We are no strangers to silence; we are comfortable with it. We quiet our hearts and focus on God as we come into His presence. We do not feel we have to fill the silence with our words. When we feel like saying something to God aloud, we then speak. That day we ended up not praying a word out loud, but we enjoyed that beautiful time in company with God, praising Him for the beauty around us, communing with Him in our spirits as though He was sitting on our porch swing with us—for He was with us. Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18: 20, NKJV).

I like to think of God with us like He was early on with Adam and Eve. “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool [breeze, wind] of the day…” (Genesis 3:8, NKJV). Though in this verse Adam and Eve ran and hid themselves from God because they had sinned against Him, I’m sure, based on previous verses, that prior to that day they had gone companionably walking and talking with God when He came into the garden to meet with them. In my imagination I see them eager to share their day’s experiences with God and to hear what He had to say to them.

I love the concept of hearing the sound or voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze of the cooling evening as the sun was setting. They heard the familiar rustle of the leaves of the trees and bushes and knew God was coming for a chat.

We, too, can have such a relationship with God.

[1] Alfred Tennyson, “The Higher Pantheism” from The Holy Grail and Other Poems, (London: Strahan, 1870)