Prayer is the Way of Childhood

The way of childhood is the way of littleness. Jesus said that we need to change; we need to repent. We need to become little or He said that we can not enter into His kingdom (Mt 18:2-4). Prayer is a striving to enter more and more into His kingdom by becoming little. This is totally against our culture, but the Bible cuts right across the culture.

Once we learn that all we have to do is become little, we can cooperate with the dark night to hasten it's end. Isn't that nice to know that it has an end? The dark night will have accomplished its purpose when the stripping is done, when we are little, when we stand naked once again in our full identity in the Presence of God as that little baby, as His child. Then we will learn how to celebrate our smallness and inadequacies. It is so freeing!

We will see a great humility come upon us as we are exposed to the Person who is Truth. Then we will live in the Truth. We will walk in the Truth. We will breathe in Truth. We will speak in Truth. That is what humility is all about-Truth. Part of that truth is acknowledging our own littleness and limitations. It's okay to fall down. All children fall, but they are so close to the ground that they never really get hurt. We will come into a deeper poverty. This poverty of spirit will bear tremendous fruit. Who is more poor than a baby? A baby doesn't have anything unless it is given to him or her. Who is more dependent than a child? We will find our total dependency on God, and we will love it. We can lean on Someone who makes good decisions, Someone who has all the answers, Someone who has a tremendous sense of responsibility and can carry the load that we were burdened with. We can depend on God. He is so faithful.

We will come into greater purity as we come into a deeper relationship with the Lord. The Holy Spirit will sanctify us. He will purify us because God is pure. In order to have union of spirit to Spirit, we need to be healed of everything that has ever happened to us. Then we will become more sensitive to the needs of others. Love will start to reach out and we become aware. In the natural order, children and teenagers are pretty much still turned in on themselves. They are not too aware of anyone else's feelings or what is going on in the household, but as they grow into maturity, they become very sensitive and aware of the needs of others. This is what happens in prayer. It is one of the fruits of union with the Lord. We become more gentle in dealing with human frailty because we are so conscious of our own weaknesses. We've been there. We're there every moment, so we stop being judgmental. St. Philip Neri said, "But for the grace of God go I!" How true. We become more obedient in the sense of responding more quickly to His promptings. The minute we pick up what the Lord wants, we do it. We don't argue with Him, we don't procrastinate, we do it, and we do it with great joy. That will come more quickly because that's the very essence of prayer.

So if you want to check yourself to see how you are doing in prayer, check your surrender, check your joyful and prompt obedience to the Holy Spirit as you understand what God is saying to you, whether it be through Scripture or private prayer. Obedience is the essence of prayer. It's the heart of prayer. The letting go becomes easier and easier as we go through these states because as we are so involved with the real Presence within that we have learned to trust. He has our total trust and the letting go becomes easier. Not that there isn't any pain, because there is usually a sacrifice in letting go, but it will not be as difficult to let go because we have become so accustomed to the One we hang onto.

E-mail this article to a friend