I used to think a good prayer needed to sound a certain way. I would catch myself rehearsing what I wanted to say to God, picking better words, like I was drafting something instead of actually talking to him. If what came out felt too plain or too messy, I figured it did not really count.

Then there is a parable Jesus tells in Luke 18:9 to 14. Two men go up to the temple to pray. One is a Pharisee, standing where everyone can see him, thanking God that he is not like other men and listing off everything he has gotten right. The other is a tax collector who will not even lift his eyes. All he says is, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Jesus says it is the second man who went home justified. Not the one with the better prayer.

What has stayed with me is that God is not grading delivery. He is not waiting on us to find the right words before he will listen. The plain, unfinished prayer that just tells him the truth is the one he actually receives, every time, over the composed version we think we are supposed to bring him.

I still catch myself trying to clean things up before I pray. But more and more I am learning the cleaning up is not the point. Coming as I actually am, is.

Today’s Bible Study

There is a line in Psalm 51 that sits right next to that parable for me. “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” David wrote that after about as plain a failure as it gets, and he is not handing God a polished explanation. He is handing over what is actually broken in him, trusting that it is enough. I think that is the same thing the tax collector understood, standing in the back of the temple, not lifting his eyes. God is not asking for our best performance. He is asking for what is true.

Recommended Reading

If this is something you want to sit with longer, I would point you to The Way of a Pilgrim, an old Russian spiritual classic about a man who learns to pray without ceasing using the same words the tax collector prayed, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” It is a short read, and it has stayed with me since I first found it.