Lay Your Head In His Lap

Lay Your Head In His Lap

Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

Ephesians 6:18

SPEAKER AND AUTHOR BRENNAN MANNING used to tell a story about a woman who asked a priest to come speak to her father, who was on his deathbed. The priest agreed to come right over.

The daughter let the priest in and told him her father was in his bedroom. When the priest walked in, he noticed an empty chair next to the bed. He said, “I see you’re expecting me.”

The man in the bed said, “No. Who are you?” The priest explained that the daughter had invited him to come over and talk to her father about God.

The man nodded and said, “I have a question for you.” He explained that he had always believed in God and Jesus, but never knew how to pray. One time he asked a preacher at church, who gave him a book to read. On the first page there were two or three words he didn’t know. He gave up reading after a few pages and continued not to pray.

A few years later he was at work talking to a Christian friend named Joe. He mentioned to Joe that he didn’t know how to pray. Joe seemed confused. He said, “Are you kidding? Well, here’s what you do. Take an empty chair, put it next to you. Picture Jesus sitting in that chair, and talk to him. Tell him how you feel about him, tell him about your life, tell him about your needs.”

The man gestured to the empty chair next to his bed and said, “I’ve been doing that for years. Is that wrong?”

“No.” The priest smiled. “That’s great. You just keep doing that.”

The two of them talked a little longer, and then the priest left.

About a week later the man’s daughter called the priest. She explained, “I just wanted to let you know that my father died yesterday. Thanks again for visiting him; he enjoyed talking to you.”

The priest said, “I hope he died peacefully.”

“Well, it was interesting,” the daughter told him. “I had to go to the store yesterday, so I went in my dad’s bedroom. He was fine. He made a corny joke, and I left. When I came back he was dead. But here’s the strange part: right before he died he crawled out of bed, and he died with his head lying on that empty chair.”

Prayer Is

Relationships are all about love and are based on communication. What God is looking for is relationship, not religion. If we’re going to have a real relationship with God, it’s going to be about love and based on communication.

Prayer is communicating with God. But it’s more than that. Prayer is love. God loves us, and his love calls for us to respond. Prayer comes not from gritting your teeth and engaging in a “discipline”; prayer comes from falling in love. Prayer is shared intimacy with God. Prayer is putting your head in your loving Father’s lap.

On one hand, prayer is as simple as that. You don’t need to read a book with big words; you just need to pull up an empty chair. You don’t need a bunch of seminars; you just need an open heart.

On the other hand, prayer is an unnatural activity in some ways. It’s talking to God, but we’re not used to talking to someone we can’t see. It’s letting God speak to us, but we’re not used to listening to someone we can’t audibly hear. I don’t want to make prayer more complicated than it is, but if you’re new to prayer or struggle with prayer, it can be a bit confusing. So let me share a few thoughts that have helped my prayer life.

Growing in Prayer

Prayer isn’t just a part of our day; it should be the air we breathe. The Bible says, “pray continually”^a and “on all occasions.”^b Prayer is sharing our lives, our thoughts, and our moments with God, so it’s something that we can and should do all the time.

However, we need to take some special time to devote to prayer each day. Why? Because fixing our focus on God will help us to keep our focus on him the rest of the day. Because we’ll go deeper in that special quiet time than we will in the hustle and bustle of the rest of the day. It’s the same as in a marriage. My wife and I might spend a whole day together and kind of talk about a thousand things, but until we stop doing something else and sit down and look at each other, we probably won’t talk about anything of substance.

When should you do that prayer time? Well, it’s the most important part of your day, so you should give it the best time of your day. Are you a morning person? Then spend time with God when you first wake up. Or does your brain not start functioning till after twelve cups of coffee? Then maybe lunchtime would be a better choice. Some people prefer to devote the last part of their day to focusing on God in prayer.

And you can be creative in that time. Sometimes I think my prayers. Other times I talk out loud.^c More often, I write my prayers in a journal.^d I’ve also gone on prayer walks. And I’ve been known to put on some worship music and spend some of my time with God, singing to him. What’s important is love; that we’re really connecting with God.

Experiment and see what helps you to really connect with God.

And if none of those ways work, you can always just pull up an empty chair.

Now What?

• Read Matthew 6:5-13.
• Jesus gives us a model, or an outline, for prayer, not the exact words we’re to pray. Our words shouldn’t be recited but should come from our hearts. Read through Jesus’ model prayer again. What types of things is he saying we should pray about?
• Use Jesus’ model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 as an outline for your prayers today. Prayerfully read an idea, like “Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (NIV), and then take a moment to continue praying that idea in your own words.