"I-don't-know-what-to-pray-for" Prayer!

Prayer is both a craving and a conversation.

You feel your prayers as much as say them.

Conversations with Jesus are expressions of faith, adoration and hope. Our sense of need to feel His presence and receive His care act like a set of hydraulics. The need to connect presses the mind to make contact using the words that will satisfy our desire to talk with our Savior. The pressure to communicate ransacks and scans the conscious mind until an exact fit is matched with the exact words. It is a vital element in praying to be able to handoff one's desires to Jesus employing words that aptly show the shape of one's yearnings.

Yes, it is true, words, in and of themselves, never completely determine our prayers. What is more important is the presence of Christian faith in the heart.

But, let us not forget that there is another experience to prayer. Though wordless, it is no less real. An episode often precedes the craft of creating the conversation using words. It begins with an insemination. An impulse appears. A yearning. An intuition. Little more than just a naked desire. Something triggers the impulse to reach up by reaching out.

A single line from a sermon may hail the strange visitor. A song, a memory or even a dream. No precise answer will guarantee an explanation.

St Paul describe the visitor as a "groaning."

Have you ever ached for the simple touch of Jesus' healing love? Or does the idea of spiritual groaning fall on your ear as an idea that is strangely new?

You should expect your pastor to know a thing or two about the kind of prayer that is called, "I-don't-know-what-to-pray-for" kind of prayer.

Believers have a common share in a common commotion. They can sense that their spiritual groanings are groaning for the hope to somehow locate the exact match that will fit the right words with the right converstation.

The spoken words on our lips can express the deepest groanings of the heart.

You needn't linger or feel stuck. The fellowship of Christ is found between two fellow believers. Share your search with your pastor. He will offer counsel from the Words of Jesus Christ. His prayers, united with yours, can bring down the Light that you seek.

Never hesitate because you feel a bit foolish. It is a common expereince with believers. They often feel the need to pray but they don't always feel as if they know the exact words that best craft the conversation.