Having a one-on-one conversation with God
By Bruce Boyer
Prayer is essential to strengthen our relationship with God. Prayer is done in large or small group settings and even with just one other person. Most often it is done privately as a one-on-one conversation with God, listening for God to make His desires known to us.
This devotion focuses on prayer when it is just you and God.
I recently came across an inspirational book entitled “I Heard God Laugh.” It provides faith lessons on a variety of subjects, including prayer. I highly recommend this short book. A key section of the book outlines what author Matthew Kelly calls the “Prayer Process.” Kelly says we are tempted to spend much of our prayer time telling God what we want Him to do for us. One-way conversations don’t involve listening to Him. While the contents of your prayers are a personal matter, consider incorporating the style and elements of Kelly’s “Prayer Process,” seeking a more intimate relationship with God. The Prayer Process has the following progression:
1. Express thanks for whatever you are grateful for today.
2. Revisit times in the past 24 hours when you were not the best version of yourself and what you learned from those times.
3. Identify something that happened in the past 24 hours and what you think that God is trying to tell you.
4. Ask God for forgiveness that would lead you to a greater sense of peace.
5. Consider how God invites you to make changes in your life.
6. Lift up the needs of others to God.
7. Finish with the Lord’s Prayer.
As you consider this seven-step process, you can see how it would deepen your relationship with God through prayer. It is not just a monologue of requests of God. Instead, it is an interactive conversation with God, looking at your own life and considering how God wants to change you. Before adopting the Prayer Process idea, Kelly said, “I had only been interested in telling God what my will was. Now for the first time, I was asking God to reveal his will. God, what do you think I should do?”
Kelly calls prayer “life’s essential habit.” Like all lifestyle changes, it takes time for a new practice to become a natural part of our everyday lives. Kelly suggests a 21-day launch so that it becomes part of your daily routine. “Our lives change when our habits change.” He suggests not to allow yourself to skip even one day, or you will begin to make excuses and get out of the new habit. Ten minutes with God each day can do wonders for your spiritual journey.
The book elaborates on this Prayer Process and also includes other topics for spiritual growth. You will experience a change in your life if you incorporate his elements into your one-on-one prayer life. It is not just you talking, but listening for God to speak to your heart as you deal with the situations of your life. Kelly said, by doing this, “I let God play a role in my decision-making,” instead of telling Him what I had decided to do (without Him).
The bottom line is, “God, what do you think I should do?”
All quotes in this devotion are from “I Heard God Laugh,” by Matthew Kelly. The Prayer Process is outlined on pages 75-76. The book also contains a guide for contemplative prayer, which leads to a heartfelt personal response to specific Bible passages.
Bruce Boyer is the author of two devotional books and writes a weekly devotional. A library of his stories is posted on https://christianfaithstories.org/.
