The Oxford Language dictionary defines prayer as: “a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or another deity.”

In other words, this defines prayer as what we say to God at set moments. I suspect that is roughly the definition that I had for a good chunk of my life, or at least I behaved as if it was. But I think it is a potentially problematic definition of prayer. Quite a while back, I realized that God “knows what [I] need before [I] ask him.”

 I prefer a definition of prayer given by Bishop Stephen Cottrell when he said “prayer is the lover coming into the presence of the beloved and saying: I love you.” Both the poetry and the theology of this definition appeal to me. “The lover”, says the bishop, is God and we are “The beloved”. 

To think of prayer this way has taken a huge burden from me because I know my shortcomings, but I also know who God is and that I can trust him.  I am much more comfortable with prayer now. I use silence and contemplation in prayer after a busy day, when my mind is overwhelmed or I come to the presence of God in a moment of silence just seated wherever I am; and I love it. I am quite a restless person and so I like to pray as I go for walks, and find I am able to stay in prayer for longer. I have learned to love the thankfulness aspect of prayer too. Not just listing the things that I am thankful for, but pausing and reflecting on each thing, feeling the emotions that flow from it, savouring it for a moment or two and then thanking God again for it.

Practices like these bring home to me the truth of a phrase I once heard: “prayer is the foretaste of heaven”.  Prayer calms me down when I am overwhelmed, helps me persevere on life's journey and builds up positive feelings and emotions that make me resilient. 

 Shared by Jackson Klein at our January 2024 Church Prayer Breakfast.