From His book “A Praying Life” Paul E. Miller shares:
Why is it so important to come to God just as you are? If you don’t you are artificial and unreal, like the Pharisees. Rarely did they tell Jesus just what they were thinking. Jesus accused them of being hypocrites, of being masked actors with two faces. They weren’t real. Nor did they like little children. The Pharisees were indignant when the little children poured into the temple (after Jesus had cleansed it) and began worshipping him. Jesus replied, quoting Psalm 8, “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise: (Mathew 21:16).
The only way to come to God is by taking off any spiritual mask. The real you has to meet the real God. He is a person.
So, instead of being frozen by your self-preoccupation, talk with God about your worries. Tell him where you are weary. If you don’t begin with where you are, then where you are will sneak in the back door. Your mind will wander to where you are weary.
We are often so busy and overwhelmed that when we slow down to pray, we don’t know where our hearts are. We don’t know what troubles us. So, oddly enough, we might have to worry before we pray. Then our prayers will make sense. They will be about our real lives.
Your heart could be, and often is, askew. That’s okay. You have to begin with what is real. Jesus didn’t come for the righteous. He came for sinners. All of us are guilty. The very things we try to get rid of—our weariness, our distractedness, or messiness—are what get us in the front door! And that’s how the gospel works. That’s how prayer works. in bringing your real self to Jesus, you give him the opportunity to work on the real you, and you will slowly change. The kingdom will come. You’ll end up less selfish.
The kingdom comes when Jesus becomes the king of your life. But it has to be your life. You can’t create a kingdom that doesn’t exist, where you try to be better than you really are. Jesus calls that hypocrisy—putting on a mask to cover the real you. Ironically, many attempts to teach people to pray encourage the creation of a split personality. You’re taught “to do it right.” Instead of the real, messy you meeting God, you try to recreate yourself by becoming spiritual. No wonder prayer is so unsatisfying.
So instead of being paralyzed by who you are, begin with who you are. That’s how the gospel works. God begins with you. It’s a little scary because you are messed up.
Become like the little children Jesus surrounded himself with. When Nathan first hears about Jesus, he says the first thing that comes to his mind: “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). It is the pure uncensored Nathaniel. When Jesus greets Nathaniel, you can almost see Jesus smiling when he says. “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” (John 1:47) Jesus ignores the fact that Nathaniel has judged Jesus’ entire family and friends in Nazareth. He simply enjoys that Nathaniel is real, without guile, a man who doesn’t pretend. Jesus seems to miss the sin and see a person. It is classic Jesus. He loves real people.
God would much rather deal with the real thing. Jesus said that he came for sinners, for messed-up people who keep messing up (see Luke 15:1-2). Come dirty. The point of the gospel is that we are incapable of beginning with God and his kingdom.(for missionaries, the church and so), but all the while their lives are all wrapped up in their own kingdoms. You can’t adds God’s kingdom as an overlay to your own.
Touching Our Father’s Heart:
The opening words of the Lord’s prayer are Our Father. You are the center of our Heavenly Father’s affection. That is where you find rest to your soul. If you remove prayer from the welcoming heart of God (as much teaching on the Lord’s Prayer does), prayer becomes a logistic chore. We do the duty but miss touching the heart of God. By coming to God “weary and heavy-laden,” we discover his heart; heaven touches earth and his will is done..
We have much more to learn about praying, but by becoming like a little child to our Father, we have learned the heart of prayer. I say “we” deliberately because I regularly forget the simplicity of prayer. I become depressed and after failing to fix my depression, I give up on myself and remain distant from God. I forget the openness of my Father’s heart. He wants me to come depressed, just as I am.
If you get this simple truth, then, Like Kim, you have taken your first wobbly step. In fact, you might want to take a wobbly step now by pausing to pray like a little child. ~~~ Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting with Bod in a Distracting World (NavPress: Colorado Springs, Tyndale House Publishers 2009, 2017) p.20-23
* Posts with a Preamble asterisk * are for a more general, not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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