Prayer is a deep spiritual mystery.

Mutual communication with God is going on far beneath the surface of our lives.

Not only do we often not know what to pray, we often know not what we are praying. This is not said that we might disengage our minds, but that, with engagement, we might also release our spirits to commune with the Holy Spirit who knows, overcomes, and even uses our weaknesses in prayer even as He does in our outward lives.

" Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." – Romans 8:26-27 (ESV)

We ask, with the disciples, "Teach us to pray."

And we learn from those who have prayed.

" I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;
I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me." -Psalm 101:2-3 

I could, can, and do echo this prayer of commitment today:

1. Regulate my thoughts. Rejecting that which is unworthy, focusing on the real longing of my heart for God to show up in my life in a fresh way.

2. Walking in my own house with integrity – in the place of my most intimate relationships and relaxed behaviors among those who know me best and must put up with me most.

3. Watching what I watch and how I feed my brain when I am alone and unaccountable to anyone but God. Worthless things pay no dividends but destruction and decay.

4. Hating that which is the fruit of unfruitful labor. In other words, I am called to reject the products of rebellion against truth and the God of truth. They appear attractive and they lure us with the promise that they are shortcuts to success, but they are not worthy of our efforts.

"…but I give myself to prayer."

Whatever the mess, the tension, the stress, and the opposition, we had better be on that page. There are challenges we cannot face alone. There are perplexities we cannot unravel. There are doubts we cannot calm. There are attacks we cannot fend off.

We must give ourselves to prayer.

When I come to the end of myself, I come to the continuing beginning of God's grace in my life,

"Be not silent, O God of my praise!
For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
speaking against me with lying tongues.
They encircle me with words of hate,
and attack me without cause.
In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer." – Psalm 109:1-4