What Are You Praying to Find?

I am coming out of a season that required me to pray like never before.  There were times when I felt like it was the only thing I could turn to... the only thing I could "do."  The funny thing about prayer is that it really isn't for God, it's for us.  We tend to think that praising Him, lifting up our burdens, and asking for the desires of our heart is in some way going to earn us a little extra favor with the Big Man Upstairs.  Not true.  There is nothing we can do, of ourselves, to win extra brownie points.  He loves me the same as He did yesterday, today, and He will love me that much tomorrow too.  There have been burdens in my life that I would pray for ceaselessly... sometimes thinking that this one extra prayer might just be it... it might just be the one to move God to action.   More often times than not, it doesn't work that way.  But I will tell you one thing, the more prayer that goes into a circumstance, the more God will allow me to consider His perspective and the more peace He will bring to my heart.  Why?  Because when we pray our hearts are knitted a little more tightly to our Father's.  Not because of the act of prayer, but because through prayer a relationship gets stronger.  He understands me more than I even understand myself.  That will never change.  But Lord, there is SO much I don't yet know about You.  When we have a conversation with the Lord, we get to know Him better.  Shocking revelation... I know.  And one important thing that is becoming life to my dry bones is believing that when I know Him, the rest simply makes more sense.  When we seek answers to our questions or solutions to our problems, we are expecting just that... an answer or a solution.  In my life, vast majority of the time, the Lord matures and makes me more like Himself through a process, not an answer.  With a process there is an experience, with an answer there is an answer.  If you tell me 4+4 equals 8 that's fine, I now know the answer to a simple addition problem.  But if you tell me HOW and WHY the answer is 8, and if I can add the numbers on my own, I will know answers to lots of problems.  Follow?  So, next time you pray and your heart is heavy before Him, try seeking HIM instead of the answer.  Don't worry, He will tell you about Himself (Matthew 7:8.)  I bet you will not only find your solution, but you will come to know Him better.  And next time, when you have a question, you may find that you already have the answer:)