Really Silent Prayer

Recently I was talking with a friend about some time they spent with God and they mentioned listening to God. Then the book I’m reading right now talked about listening to God. I’ve felt for a while that I’m not particularly good at the “listening” part of my time with God.

When I’m with God I usually like to talk a lot. Normally out loud. But even when I’m trying to meditate or just listen, it’s hard to keep myself from talking inside my head. Maybe that’s just “thinking”. 😂 But I’m not sure that really counts as listening. Now I try not to get too hung up on the “right” way to be with God. Just going with the flow seems to better allow God to work things in the way He wants. But the “listening” still intrigues me while still seeming to be hard for me.

Then I had an interesting thing happen this morning during my God time. I’m not sure if it “just happened” or I decided to do it. Some combination of both I’m sure. As I was sitting on my couch with my eyes closed, a friend came to mind. I could see them in my mind, though that type of “seeing” is never too sharp for me. Definitely not like looking at a photograph. I sort of felt a longing for the needs I knew they had. It was like I was expressing that feeling to God. Like I was praying to God for them, but I was not using any words, not even thinking any words. Just picturing them and knowing what they needed and “feeling” that towards or with God.

I realized quickly that this was pretty cool. I was being silent but communicating in some manner with God. I just let them stay there in my mind until it seemed, on its own, someone else came to my mind. The first person was carried up and off to the side in God’s hands, and then another person appeared in God’s hands.

Now I’m not trying to make this sound like I had some special vision or anything. I’m pretty sure it was me that added in the hands of God and moving them around. But I did just let my mind go, so that whoever was in front of my mind stayed there until another person came into my mind, on there own, without me trying to find the next person on my prayer list. And I did try not to think of or about the needs I knew they had, that I would normally pray for. It was kind of just like feeling love for them and passing that on to God.

It’s interesting trying to describe it now,  I’m less sure of what actually went on. But I’m excited to try it again. Very different from my normal prayer, where I’m talking a lot to God, going through my list I have in my order. Here I gave all that up and allowed God to bring to mind whoever He wanted. I kept as silent as I could, even in my mind. But people kept showing up. God was doing something while I was silent, while I “listened”.