Unexpected Listening

In How to Pray C.S. Lewis wrote, “We all go through periods of dryness in our prayers, don’t we? I doubt whether they are necessarily a bad symptom. I sometimes suspect that we feel to be our best prayers are really our worst; that what we are enjoying is the satisfaction of apparent success, as executing a dance or reciting a poem. Do our prayers sometimes go wrong because we insist on trying to talk to God when He wants to talk to us?”

I must confess that I have often felt pleased with myself because of the rather robust list of prayer requests that I maintain and the number of people for whom I pray.

For example:

I pray daily for each member of my family by name that they will walk with the Lord and that He will lead them. If they share special needs with me, I pray for those.

I pray for my denomination’s university, I pray for revival, for transformed lives and for God’s provision.

I pray for my denomination’s leaders that they will lead from a place of intimacy with the Father, that they will serve with pure hearts and be totally dependent on the leading of the Spirit. I also pray that they will always be looking to the harvest, that they will be disciple makers and that they will lead with humility.

 ________________________________________

If you would like to have each new Praying Pastor entry emailed to you.

Sign Up Here
________________________________________

There are several marriages I pray to be restored.

I pray for several ministry couples I have known and have some investment in, that God will bless and lead them.

I pray for God’s provision for some church planters who are friends of mine.

Then there is the list of people I want to see come to faith in Christ--neighbors, family members and doctors that I see regularly.

Of course, there is the list of people battling various illnesses and I pray for their healing.

Pausing in His Presence

But on Christmas morning 2024, I was awake at my usual time and went to my place of prayer. After spending some time in the Word, I was ready to pray but there was nothing. I was blank. There was no burden for prayer or for any of those needs I normally take to the Lord.

I sat in that quiet place and the Lord began to speak to me. He told me He already knew about all of those needs that I was about to bring to Him. He told me to rest in Him. Then He began to affirm His love for me and reminded me of what the day was about. This was His day--Christmas morning.

I sat in His presence longer than it would have taken me to pray through my list of concerns. He reminded me of the many expressions of His grace that I had experienced over the course of my life. He reminded me of the call He had placed on my life when I was a teenager. He also reminded me of the many prayers He had answered through the years.

The longer I sat and listened there was a peace that began to flood my soul. The sweetness of His presence left me more refreshed than I had been in a while. When He was finished, I didn’t rush to pray over my lists. I rested and listened just in case He had more to say.

Christmas morning was His morning but also my morning to be affirmed and refreshed by the One who loves me more than I can imagine. I would have missed the peace had I not paused to listen,

“The inner chamber is an audience chamber where the soul enters into friendly intercourse and mutual interchange. It is a place for listening as well as for speech. The most important part of prayer is not what we say to God, but what God says to us.” –Samuel Chadwick from The Path of Prayer

Extra Help: Embracing Intimacy was the theme of a past issue of our award winning magazine, Prayer Connect. Pastor Jamie Overholser's article "Doing the Dance Together" takes a deeper look at intimacy through prayer.

About the Pastor:

Rev Tom Swank is currently the Director of Prayer Ministry for the Missionary Church. In this capacity, he oversees its prayer ministry PrayFirst! A longtime pastor, who has led a number of churches into becoming strong praying churches, Tom also serves on the leadership team of the Denominational Prayer Leaders Network.