More Than Words

1 Feb

“Prayer is not asking.  It is a longing of the soul.  It is daily admission of one’s weakness.  It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

I’ve encountered many people throughout the years who talk.  Incessantly.  They talk from the moment they first get up to the moment that they go to bed.  Some even talk in their sleep.  You may know the kind of people I mean.  They take a half hour to say hello, a half hour to say goodbye, and several hours in between to “catch you up” on everything going in their lives.  They let you know what they are thinking, what they were thinking, and what they are probably going to think.

They go on and on and on and on.

Many of those kinds of people employ the same approach to their prayers.  They rattle on and on to God.  They tell Him everything.  They talk and ask and cajole.  The entire time they are doing so, they never stop to let God respond.  I imagine God looking at them and saying, “But….”  “Will you….”  “Well….”  without ever getting in another word.

Prayer, according to Gandhi, is not so much about words but about heart.  Prayer is a silent conversation with God, heart to heart.  So much can be said in those kinds of conversations.  Spouses and good friends often “talk” the same way.  They could sit with one another for hours saying very little.  Yet, their time together speaks more volumes than words possibly could.

Those are the times that we should attempt to seize in our prayer lives.  Sure, there are times for words.  There are times to pour our hearts out to God.  There are times for supplication.  They are all legitimate.  However, I think that if we focused more on being comfortable with God in silence, our prayer would take on new life and make us even stronger in our faith.

FAITH ACTION:  Try to create some time for yourself today to sit in silence so that you can allow God to speak to your heart.  If you need to read scripture or other spiritual reading, that is fine.  But try to remain silent for a good period of time.