Finding Truth

What’s in a prayer? When you pause and feel a prayer, what do you feel? 

Does it take you to a place of openness? Does it take you to a place where you feel fully and wholly heard? What makes a prayer different than any other thought that may cross your mind on a given day?

A prayer can take us to infinite places, and who am I to judge what is the ultimate destination of a prayer. I know that my heart is heard and my soul is held in prayer, but it’s so fascinating to think “where am “I” taken with a prayer”. I’m not sure if it’s a place, but it’s most definitely a feeling. A feeling of limitless understanding and yet a tenderness that doesn’t make the limitlessness of it all feel intimidating in the slightest. In so many ways, my prayers take all the layers of me and puts them into a single statement to be heard by all. A calling out of sorts to “all” of the people that reside in me. 

And do you know what the beautiful thing is? All those “people”, answer. 

They answer in ways that are so singular in presence that it sometimes cannot be heard, it can only be felt. And in that feeling, the “I” of me is fully summed into the moment of saying the prayer. And here, here is the moment that in so many ways encapsulates the knowing that God is there for I know, in that moment, he is listening. 

Now, the answer is not always one that is an instantaneous response, nor is it one that necessarily gets a response when I want it the most, but the reply is always given. And here’s the thing, when I really find myself praying, when the words seem to come from out of myself spilling onto the pages of the mind, that’s when I know I’m calling out for the truths I’m seeking in my path. 

Perhaps that’s what’s in a prayer that calls us to pray. For the truth is really what sets us free. 

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:32