Wordless Prayers — A LifeWords Devotion

How good it is that our prayers do not need words to reach the ear of our Father. Many of us can testify that many of our prayers are wordless. Not out of laziness, but out of sheer fatigue, helplessness, ignorance or anxiety. How good it is that our Father in heaven is not impatiently tapping his feet and demanding that we spit out what is on our hearts and minds.

There are times when words fail us. When we cannot articulate what is on our hearts because such things are beyond words, and in any case we lack the mental energy to explore what words might fit. This is when we realise prayer is always an expression of weakness and not strength. Our God makes allowances for our weaknesses rather than despising them.

We are not to confine prayer to a set of words, or to a particular time of day. We do not have to concern ourselves with getting our theology just right or ensuring our words are accurate. There are times when all that is quite beyond us. And so prayer becomes a matter of sighs and groans, understood by the Spirit of God if not by us.

Wordless prayer is still prayer because God knows some things and situations are beyond words. Just because our words fail, our prayers do not.

Blessings,

David