Prayer Diving

I watched a segment on TV about an underwater photographer. He said while there is beauty beneath the waves when sunlight filters through water, the greatest beauty lie in the depths, when darkness left the light behind, The light of the camera revealed an array of color and beauty not seen with the naked eye or near the surface. Deep sea diving is a risky business as one has to trust in their equipment. It’s the same in our spiritual worlds. It’s a risky business to leave behind all we are familiar with to explore the depths of a life of prayer, but our equipment is the Holy Spirit. He will never fail us.

Most people, Christians and not yet Christians, have some idea and understanding of prayer, but it takes a journey into unexplored territory to experience the depth of its beauty. When we first know Jesus in a personal way, our prayers are filled with thankfulness to Him for what He did for us on the cross. This is most necessary. Our prayers are also filled with requests. This is also most necessary, but it is the requests we must address today.

When we are infants in the Lord, taking our first steps, learning to walk in our spiritual journey, we pray for those things we desire. We even beg and plead that the Lord answer our prayers in the manner we want them to be answered. Always we want our prayers to be answered in the affirmative. We tell ourselves that if we pray in faith believing (Matthew 21:22) then of course we will have what we ask. Oh, the disappointment and confusion when what we plead for doesn’t take place. When this happens, we often and sadly, turn away from praying, telling ourselves we tried and it didn’t work. This is a lie of Satan. Prayer is a journey of learning, like going to school or apprenticing a trade. It takes time and practice.

As we determine to keep on praying, we keep on growing closer to our Heavenly Father. As we grow closer, or may I say go deeper in our relationship with Him, leaving familiar territory to plunge into a space where our former hopes now become entwined with our Father’s heart, we become immersed into what may seem like darkness at first, as we adjust our eyes to this new depth, but then the light of the Holy Spirit lets us see beyond anything we dreamed. He lights up a new path which can only be fully seen when full surrender of heart takes place.

Is that a part of Paul meant when he said he brings his body into submission? (I Corinthians 9:27) If we surrender our minds and hearts to the Holy Spirit, risking a journey into the unknown, into that which we have never experienced before, then yes, we experience the vast beauty of the depth of truth found in Psalm 37:4, Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart (ESV). It is possible for our hopes to become so trusting and discerning of our Father’s plans that we may pray as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He, diving deep in prayer, came to a place where His desires were one with His Father. That is when He could pray, Not My will but Yours be done (Luke 22:42 NLT). It is good for all of us that Jesus came to that place. If He did not, salvation never would have happened. Jesus was so entwined with His Father’s heart, that He could fully trust that all things would work together for good (Romans 8:28) and did it ever!

May we each make a daily decision to dive deep in prayer, leaving our own definition of need behind as we enter into the love of God that knows no limits, that displays its most glorious beauty in the darkness where only the light of His love can show the way.