Unedited Prayers

Do you mentally edit your requests and words before or as you’re praying?

If you are like me, you often do.

This habit is actually ridiculous, since the Bible confirms God knows our thoughts anyway. My experience has taught me that to do so also diminishes the quality of my connection to God and the effectiveness of my prayer.

When I think over my lifetime, there are a several prayers which stand out. Those are the prayers when I had grown weary of praying proper, edited prayers and in frustration, blurted out a simple, let’s-get-down-to-business one.

One such prayer came after a few years of praying about whether to remain in my home or to sell it. Thinking I was being submissive to God’s will, I told God repeatedly that I wanted what He wanted in the decision.

But lying in my bed during a power outage on a stormy night, I lobbed an unedited question up to God: “I just want to know…am I staying or moving?”

The next morning, I saw the storm had blown a For Sale sign into my yard from a residence a street away. The following day, another confirmation came. Eight months later, I had sold my home and moved into a new one.

Not only did my short and honest prayer yield quick results, I came away from the experience with a sense that God grows as tired of our theologically correct, well-crafted prayers as we do. It seems to me He welcomes and even delights in straightforward, unedited prayers.

Why not send one to Him now?