Surrender Control // Learning To RelaxSample

How to Begin Conversations with God

You call me, Lord, I hear you. I hear the words. I see your mouth moving. I see your heart stirred. You want more—more of me, or, at least, you think you do. But if you’re honest—honest about what you think you really need, what you really want, it isn’t me, it’s rescue, it’s a way out, it’s wisdom, it’s direction, it’s provision, it’s a bandage on a wound that is bleeding out, just slowly, that you don’t yet see. 

It is okay to call out to me in need. I love when you do that. I love that you look to me for help. For yes, I am Provider. I am Helper. I am Rescuer. But I am so much more than that. I am the foundation of all things. I am moving—not just a noun but a verb. I am all things and between all things. I am the connector between all moments, all people, all emotions, all situations, all possibilities, and I am the connection, too.

I have known you all your life. I have always been been with you. And yet you call out to me but do not know for what you really ask. You call out to me but do not really know to whom you speak. You want things, but you need love. You want circumstances to change, but you want more, so much more than that too. You need me. Son, daughter, you need me.

So, get to know me. But first ask what it is that holds you back from seeking relationship with me—a relationship that is more than just words, a relationship that is more than just sermons, a relationship that is more than just rules, a relationship that is more than just a list of things to do. With me is abundance—abundant love, abundant peace, abundant light, abundant hope. With me there is conversation. Give and take. Listening and speaking. Love and love and love.

Conversation with me? Relationship with me? It looks like this. Listen . . . it begins with me:

I adore you. I adore you. I adore you. I adore you.

I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

My son. My daughter. My daughter. My son.

Did you hear me? Did you receive me? Open up the ears of your heart. I never tire of telling you how much I love you. This is the beginning of conversation. Here, let me tell you again:

I adore you. I adore you. I adore you. I adore you.

I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

My son. My daughter. My daughter. My son.

Now, your turn. Your mouth can say the words back, if you want. Or you can let your heart respond without words,too. How you participate in the conversation is not what’s most important. What’s important is that your soul receives the love I have to give you—that your heart accepts it, receives it. For then the conversation begins. Then the conversation is in full swing. When you receive my love, your heart can’t help but reciprocate. Oh, I love the language of your heart.

Start at the beginning, son, daughter. Start at the beginning—the beginning of desire, the beginning of need, the beginning of pain, the beginning of hope, and you will see that it isn’t just your mind, your words, that call out to me, but your heart, your heart, your heart. Let me show you to whom you speak. Let me take you deeper, to show you your heart’s true craving, the desire underneath the desire, the cry out underneath the cry. 

I satisfy desperation. I answer the cries of your heart. But I have so much more for you, too. Consider this: Ask yourself if you know me, if you want to know me, and if you want to get to know me more. And then let’s begin that conversation. I can’t wait to connect with you, just you, you.

Exercise:

A conversation with God necessarily involves adoration. Because everything God does He does in adoration. There is just no way around it. He adores us, and he reveals it through His Son, through Jesus’ leadership and sacrifice; through Holy Spirit, through his personal pursuit of relationship with us; through the beauty and majesty of creation; and through his presence and gift-giving. He adores us, and we are made to receive it—and then turn it around and give adoration right back to Him.

Remember Matthew chapter 22, adoration is the number one thing we’re made to do: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

But our prayer lives might not often sound like that kind of conversation—adoration back and forth. Holy Spirit, earlier, said, “You call me, Lord, I hear you. I hear the words. I see your mouth moving. I see your heart stirred. You want more—more of me, or, at least, you think you do. But if you’re honest—honest with what you think you really need, what you really want, it isn’t me, it’s rescue, it’s a way out, it’s wisdom, it’s direction, it’s provision, it’s a bandage on a wound.”

Does that resonate? It sure does with me. And I really want that to change.

Some of the best examples we have of adoration prayer—maybe the best —are in King David’s Psalms. Here are verses one through six of Psalm 23 : 

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows . . .” 

In this Psalm and all the rest, David praised God for who He is. He told God who he knows Him to be. He names specific ways in which he had seen God work in his life—how God had been there for him, how God had walked with him and had loved him. And he acknowledged that everything he was, and everything he had, came only from God.

In adoration prayer, we engage, finally, in a conversation that God’s already begun with us. In this kind of prayer, we simply begin doing our part in the conversation. We begin giving back what He’s already given to us. 

Do you want to do it now?

Let’s go ahead and spend a few moments telling God who he is to us. First, let’s each think of an attribute, or a few attributes, or think of something about His nature that we’ve experienced to be true in our lives: His power, His kindness, His love, His wisdom, His healing . . . whatever is personal to you. Then, let’s just pray it back to him.

For example . . .  

“God, you are constant, and you are love. You will never leave me or let me down. You are the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. You were there for me when I needed someone to be there. You were there for me when no one else was. You pulled me out of darkness. You reached out your hand and brought me back into your marvelous light.”

These prayers of adoration are super powerful because they change our perspectives. They change our minds—which is really important when we’re being hit so hard and so often with the chaos and confusion and deception rampant in our present culture. When we pray God’s truth, it cuts through all of that, and His grace flows and helps us to believe His truth. So, these kinds of prayers work to increase our faith and allow us to do what’s most important, and what we’re made to do—which is to move deeper into relationship and union with Him. 

So, pray your own adoration prayer. Now, don’t overthink it. Just jump into it. Just begin. Pray from your heart, rather than from your head. Just pick an attribute of God that’s personal to you, and pray it back to Him. And notice as Holy Spirit comes right alongside you when you do—helping you to pray and helping you to believe.