Your Ache is Your Prayer

Your ache is your prayer. This was on my mind when I woke today.

Jesus taught that prayer is a personal experience each of us has with the One who made us.

Anyone can pray because prayer is literally your experience with God. There are no standards and no quality improvement measures for our prayers. God does not evaluate your prayers, he simply listens.

And God is on our side in our prayers! Even when we cannot find the words, God already knows the intentions of our hearts and the depth of our needs.

And this helpfulness of God is good. Because how often do we not fully know our own minds about a matter?

Words, spoken aloud or whispered in our minds, are prayer. Everyone knows this. We may pray aloud in a group. We usually pray silently when alone.

Your ache is also your prayer.

As beseeching of God’s attention as our words may be, our deepest prayers are the unspoken aches of our hearts, the pains of our minds, and the weaknesses of our bodies.

When the possible outcomes of a stressful situation are so uncertain that you do not know what words to pray, God understands without requiring your explanation.

When your pain is so great that you fear to choke on your words, God understands your sobs.

Even when your anger is so visceral that you intentionally refuse to pray, your ache speaks your pain and God knows.

When your sorrow is so overwhelming that you drown in your bereavement, God hears your cries from the deep. Your ache is your prayer.

Even on a good day, some people do not wish to pray aloud. If it is in your nature to be quiet about the matters of your mind and heart, find relief knowing that God knows your needs even before you choose not speak of them.

God requires no words from us to act for our good. As Paul wrote to the people of the Way in Rome, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”

So, even when we cannot pray, in the fullness of Love, God hears and understands all that is in our hearts, and minds, and bodies. He hears all the painfully ineffable matters that remain beyond our words.

Whether you ache for yourself or for others, your ache is also your prayer.