We all have found ourselves in conversation with a person where we wonder if they will ever stop talking so we can get a word in. We are longing for dialogue but instead feel we are listening to a monologue.
I wonder if God feels that way when we pray.
We often go to prayer with an urgent list of needs that we want God to respond to in ways that we understand. It is like meeting with a friend and already knowing what you are going to say before the conversation begins.
There is a real place for this pattern of prayer and God is gracious in meeting us there. But, I would like to invite you to join me this week in a prayer pattern where we begin by sitting quietly with God and asking Him what He would like to talk about. Maybe He will surprise us by bringing to mind that which is on His heart that we have not noticed.
Maybe He will use what you have read in His word as the topic for your prayer.
This morning as I read John 13, I was reminded that when Jesus knew His time on earth was short He ramped up His expression of love toward His disciples. It prompted me to pray that as Seniors we would use the chapters of our lives that we have left to be people who overflow with love more generously than ever before in our lives.
I am looking forward to comments on this post. I would love to learn what God says to you when you ask Him what He is interested in discussing with you. Let’s listen together as we stand amazed that God really wants to talk to us.
Silverstrands 
I recently went to a seminar on the “Immanuel Process” which is a method of healing counseling. We were to first get ourselves in a place where we felt connected to God (& methods were explained on how to do that). Then in groups of four, we were to play the role of counselor, client, and two observers and then switch. The idea was that when in a feeling of connectedness place, the counselor would guide the client into talking with Jesus, ie, “why don’t you ask Jesus what He wants to talk to you about?” This process was to be done on the 2nd day of the seminar. I was very upset & didn’t sleep much the night prior regarding my role as “client”. 1st because I misunderstood and thought I was to supply a major trauma from my past & I did NOT want to share one of those or relive it yet again. 2nd because the person who modeled this for us, had a picture of something enter her mind, then explained what Jesus was telling her about this picture. I thought it was highly unlikely anything would come to mind or that Jesus would “put” thoughts into my head or talk to me at all. And I wasn’t about to “fake” anything. So I would be the “odd” one in our group who Jesus did not talk to. It ended up that when I asked Jesus what He wanted to show me, immediately a picture came into my mind of walking down a hallway at high school with boys lined up sitting on ledges by the windows, laughing at me, pointing their fingers, but not being loud enough for me to hear. I was VERY surprised that any picture showed up, and felt this one was relatively harmless, happened ages ago, certainly did not “hurt” to revisit. With prompting, I asked Jesus what He wanted me to learn from this picture. Thoughts came into my head about how because we were poor, I wore clothes that were odd – we had a rule to wear dresses, the others wore nylons and dressy shoes while I wore tennis shoes and bobby socks, many of my clothes were given to me from my aunts and I looked like I was wearing “old” lady clothes rather than the current styles. I heard the thought that “I did not fit in”. I asked Jesus what He wanted me to know about that. More thoughts came crowding in – I did not fit in grade school because I was one of the few white students in a black school, I didn’t fit in 6th grade on up because I was in a suburban white school and I did not know the culture OR have the money for clothing to fit the culture. While I rarely feel lonely when alone, the times I feel achingly lonely are when I am with groups of people, because I feel I don’t fit in. My husband probably was not saved. Many of our friends were “unchurched”. I did not fully fit in with the Harley group of friends. I did not fit in when I attended church because no one there had my lifestyle. I have feelings of not fitting in here in Thailand with the other missionaries, ie, I am single, they are married; one group has mostly thin members who talk a lot about fitness and eating, while I am very over weight, etc. So this pattern of not fitting in has basically been life long. The counselor had me ask Jesus why He brought this up to me. And I heard the following words in my head: “You fit in with Me.” I smiled and smiled. What other group would I rather fit in with, than to fit in with Jesus? He further told me that there would be more times in my life when I would feel I do not fit in, and I should recall this experience when that happened. I also got a picture of the ringleader taunting boy, and all I saw was that he had a lot of pain. I just felt sorrow for him, and no animosity. (I was asked if I forgave him, and was surprised by the question. There was no need to forgive, it happened instantly when I saw his pain.) Then I got a picture of Jesus (although I did not see His face) in shepherd’s clothing, carrying a lamb. I “knew” the lamb was me and that He would leave more than 99, in fact, thousands, to find me and to hold me in His arms. I had never before felt that Jesus held me in His arms although I had prayed that for others. So a big healing took place in me, one that I was unaware of needing. And since then, I’ve already had a time when I felt I did not “fit in”, and instead of feeling sad or lonely, I smiled. Because I knew I fit in with Jesus. So I was amazed by the result of this experience, and now am trying to “listen” more to what He has to say to me. (I do feel I’ve had other things revealed to me, thoughts given to me, in the past – but it never was such a deliberate process, a deliberate asking Jesus what He wanted to show me.)