Sorry. I forgot to pray for you.

Have you ever told someone that you would pray for them and never did?

I mean, like you had the most sincerest of hearts when you told them you would pray for them, and you honestly really wanted to,

but then life kind of caught up with you and you sort of forgot?

Well, this is something that happens to me ALL of the time.

You have a friend who is struggling with something.

You say "I will definitely pray for you." and really mean it.

You leave and get caught up in cleaning your room, doing your homework, and hanging with other friends.

You completely forget to pray for that person.

You realize a week later, when they tell you that "all went well and thank you so much for praying for me", that you never even prayed for them, but not wanting them to know that, say "No problem. I love praying for you."

Oops right?

I feel like this occurs in my life quite often.

Now, I am not a prayer warrior.

Some people can pray, and I just feel like they MUST have rehearsed it or something because it is such a wonderful prayer.

Like really really spiritual and everything.

He's even got a few pieces of scripture thrown in there.

And then there's me.

I pray faster than I can think, I have a tendency to go off on tangents every next thought, and I often forget words when I am praying so I substitute with "I'm not sure what happens but I pray that your will be done" or something to that extent.

God knows what I'm thinking of anyways right?

Even if I don't even know myself....

So sometimes I try to keep my prayers short, so I don't have time to screw up.

I don't have time to forget the right words or to lose my train of thought.

I just pray for one thing, and then I'm done.

Half the time, I feel like God knows it all anyways, so why does He need me to pray for it?

Why should I pray for something that has a set outcome anyways?

God is ultimately in control, so what will my one little prayer do?

But it's not about what I'm praying for necessarily, it's THAT I'm praying which counts.

The Lord loves when we come to Him and just talk.

It doesn't matter what about.

He just wants us to acknowledge Him as the king of the universe and the maker of all things.

And for us to bring our bruised hearts and bandaged lives to Him in pieces, so that He can put us back together again.

Sometimes I feel bad, 

because I often pray the same prayer before I go to bed every night.

It's about 15 seconds long, but at least I'm praying right?

It goes something like this....

"Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you so much for this day. Thank you for keeping us safe and I pray that I will be able to glorify you tomorrow in all that I do. Please keep us safe tonight and to have a goodnight's sleep. I pray all this in your name, Amen. I love you."

And that's it.

Short.

Sweet.

And shallow.

Half the time, I just say the pray as a part of my going to bed ritual.

I don't even think about the words that I'm saying.

Now what kind of a prayer is that?

We wouldn't go up to one our friends and say the same thing over and over again.

For example, if I had a friend, and I wanted to keep up the friendship, I would just talk to them once a day for 20 seconds and say "Hey. I hope you are having a great day. I'm so glad we are friends. I'm glad we can talk about stuff. Have a great day. Bye."

What kind of a friendship would that be?

Shallow.

And meaningless.

Is that how your relationship is with the Lord?

Are you talking to Him out of obligation as a "good Christian" or are you talking to Him because you genuinely want Him to know how your day was?

Sure. He already knows how your day was,

but just as friend heard from another friend that you had a crappy day,

they would still want to hear it from you.

That's what they are there for.

A shoulder to cry on and someone to share excitement with.

And God wants to be that friend to us.

He wants us to come to Him in our best of times and in our worst of times and just tell Him what's going on.

And that's the best part.

He is ALWAYS there.

A friend who sticks by you ALWAYS and will never leave you, no matter what.

So don't come to the Father out of obligation.

Stop praying meaningless things and praying ritualistically.

Come to the Father because you want to.

Come to Him because He wants us to, and He is the only one who can truly satisfy all of our longings and cover all of our fears.

Think about that the next time you go to pray because you feel like you have to.

Pray because you want to.

That is all.

Forever His,

Rachel