Just You: A Reflective Prayer

At church, Lord, we take “prayer requests.”

So be it. Nothing wrong with it. Why wouldn’t we?

Intercession is, I think, a gift, a privilege.

Same with supplication, essentially. A privilege.

But for the longest time, God, for decades even,

it hasn’t been intercession or supplication that has

most caught or moved or interested me. For, I’ve had

this inner push, this recurring urge to simply focus on

you. When I pray, I want to focus on you. And when I

seek out union with you, it’s you I want squarely in

view. Not me—supplication—and not others—intercession.

Just you and you alone. I want to gaze upon your beauty

and find words that are worthy of one so Marvelous as you.

I want each gesture to be fitting and appropriate. I want

to write so as to convey my deepest thoughts. I know you

accept the simple prayer, God, I know it. But what a

privilege it is to have given the Spirit more to work with

such that I can dig even deeper and find language that

allows me to more fully express how I truly think and feel.

I find this type of praying much more fulling and

meaningful. Not because it’s better prose or more flowery

or anything vain, but because you are the center and

nothing or no one else is. That’s why I pray like this.

I’ve found that, when you are the focus of my praying,

when union with you is the end, when it’s not about getting

a desired item or result from you but simply about you,

I want to be in prayer more—listening, speaking, noticing you.