Something I wrote on the importance of prayer, along with some ponderings and thoughts. Enjoy! 

Prayer is not something God needs me to do, because He is powerful enough to just do stuff without me. Instead, it's something he chooses to allow me to participate in with Him in.

How special is that? How special is it that God wants to be our Abba father and let us in on His work?

I think of dad's and sons putting together old cars, or moms and daughters following a recipe for a cake. Does the mom need her daughter's help making a cake? No, probably not. But is there not joy in that time as the mom helps her daugther stir the batter and crack the eggs? And in that moment, too, is the mother not teaching her daughter skills and giving her experiences she will need for life? I feel like this is what God does when He asks us to serve Him. He doesn't do it because He needs us, He does it because he wants us to get the chance to connect with Him and learn from Him. 

God gave me a cool little picture, a picture that has popped up in my quiet times more than once, with a few different variations, always at times when I've needed to be reminded of it. It's this image of me walking up to a girl who is sitting at the edge of a lake, knees to her chest, crying in a little ball. I try to comfort her, but she won't be comforted. Then I look into the lake and I can see the reflection of the two of us in the water, her sitting there crying and me wondering how I will comfort her. But there's someone else I see there too: Jesus. He's on the other side of her, rubbing her back and comforting her, but she can't see him. Knowing that Jesus is right there, I shake her (gently) and tell her to look into the reflection of the lake and when she does, she can see Jesus too. Once she sees Him, she is able to be comforted and she is able to let Him work in her heart. 

Undeserving, without a good enough reason, I come to You. 

The world says you need to be perfect, and if you want to talk to God, you'd better have a pretty good reason. 

But every time I come, whether clean or dirty, perfect or broken, with a reason or without one, You listen to me.

We use big and grandiose words like: transformation, freedom, peace, wholeness, acceptance, redemption, to explain the difference You've made in our lives, but these words don't even begin to cover the work You do. 

All I really know is that no matter what, You listen to me. 

You change my stubborn heart.

You open me up, then You pour me out. 

You replace what has expired and You remove what shouldn't be there. 

I gain so much without doing a single thing, really.  It's all You. And You say you like to do it.