After we have spent twenty or twenty-five minutes to enjoy the Lord by dealing with His word, we need a time simply to pray. During this time we should not be preoccupied with what we have read. We should keep nothing in mind and simply seek His face, open ourselves, behold Him, look to Him, and speak something about Him, about His goodness and beauty, to adore and worship Him.
At first, some may begin their prayer by saying, “Lord, I confess that I do not know how to enjoy You or praise You in this way.” This may be good, but it is only the beginning of the practice of prayer. After we practice this kind of prayer some more, we should not say that we do not know how. Rather, when we come to the Lord, we should express something very positively from our inner realization. We may realize that the Lord is sweet, so we can pray, “O Lord, You are so sweet!” We may also realize that the Lord is so available, so we can say, “Lord, I adore You! You are so available. O Lord, I adore You and praise You for Your availability.” In this way we can speak something positively with assurance and confirmation.
To say that we do not know how to praise the Lord is an excuse. Eventually the Lord will not allow us this excuse. He may say, “You do know how to praise Me.” We have realized many things concerning the Lord, so we simply should express something in prayer from our inner realization. The adoration, worship, praise, and thanks that we render to the Lord are the expressions of our inner realization. We may say to a brother, for example, “O brother, you are so kind.” This is a kind of praise to that brother, which is the expression of our realization about him. In the same way, within our being we realize something of the Lord. This inner realization is expressed sometimes as adoration, sometimes as praise, and sometimes as the thanks we render to the Lord. Sometimes we need to say, “O Lord, I love Your presence. I love to behold Your beauty. I am here to open to You. O Lord, open Yourself more to me.”
We are at the beginning of this kind of practice. After a certain period of practice, we will get away from compositions and explanations in our prayer. The more we practice to pray in this way, the more we will be simple in our expressions. The basic principle is simply to express our inner realization of the Lord.
A brother may pray, “Lord, You have made it clear to me that You live and dwell in my spirit.” This kind of prayer may merely be a kind of explanation or definition. Instead, we should express something of our inner realization. We may say, “O Lord, what a grace! What a grace, Lord, that You are here. What a grace that You are with me, and what a grace that You are in my spirit! O Lord, so sweet!” This is the expression of the realization that the Lord lives in us.
In the first one or two weeks of our practice to pray in this way, we may define and compose our words very neatly. After a certain period of practice, however, we will be more simple. Our prayers will be expressions, not definitions or explanations. Our prayers may simply be short sentences or even simple phrases. We may say, “O Lord, how good that You are with me all the time.” In this way we can forget about our natural mind and exercise our spirit. When we pray, we have to concentrate all our strength in our spirit to speak something: “O Lord, what a mercy! What a grace! Oh, how good it is! O Lord! Hallelujah! I just cannot express it. It is too good.” This is to say something from the spirit, not to compose a prayer. If we pray with broken sentences and do not compose our prayers, we will have the release of the spirit. Our spirit will be released and uplifted. Please try this.
This is the way even to speak a message. When a young brother first begins to minister, he often prepares an introduction and each part of the message in a proper composition. As he advances, however, he leaves this kind of formality behind and speaks to people in a more effective and releasing way.
Some may pray with too much composition because they are accustomed to praying publicly in the meetings. However, even when praying in the meetings, we should learn to express rather than to explain. Rather than praying in an explaining way, “Lord, it is a privilege for us to be before You at this time,” we may simply express, “O Lord, what a precious time! How precious that we can be here.” This is an expression, not an explanation. Our present way of prayer proves that in the past we have become accustomed to an old way. Now we must practice to pray in a new way, with short and even broken sentences. Our explanations and definitions must become expressions of our inner realization. We should not care about thinking, considerations, and compositions. We simply should take care of our inner realization.