Here’s another prayer from my forthcoming book Praying without Pretence: Honest Prayers for Honest People, hopefully coming out sometime next year. It explores an issue we all face but perhaps few of us are as honest about as we ought to be.
When seeking the right words in prayer
Lord, I don’t like praying much.
Forgive me if that shocks you,
but it’s true.
For one thing, I don’t know what to say;
whether there’s some special language I should use,
some posture adopt,
some right or wrong way of addressing you.
For another,
I’m not even sure you’re listening,
for you certainly don’t often seem to answer.
‘Am I simply talking to myself?’ I can’t help asking.
And if all that’s not enough,
I don’t know what to pray for:
whether it should be for this or that,
for myself or others,
for day-to-day life or matters altogether more profound.
What do you want me to say?
What do you expect me to say?
Do my prayers please or disappoint you?
I really don’t know.
It’s not how things should be,
I’m well aware of that,
but it’s how they are:
prayer sometimes proving more of a struggle than a blessing.
Lord, open your heart to me,
and help me, simply but honestly, to open mine to you.
Amen.