Prayer Time V - Emotions.

Monday, May 25, 2009. We have talked about prayer last week - lets stay with this topic a little longer. There are so many further questions to be considered, so many large and little things to talk about. An important thing when we talk about prayer is feelings. What are our feelings when we pray? What is going on in our emotional interior? Are we expecting particular feelings when going into prayer? Are we mainly driven by feelings in our prayer or are we driven by reason? Or is there something else taking the lead? Are there special events and processes going on in either of these domains of our existence?

There are people who take prayer mainly from the emotional side. They judge the results and quality of their prayer on the basis of their feelings during prayer and after prayer. “I felt that God was so near” is one of the typical statements. Whole churches today are more looking into feelings than anything else. But feelings cannot be the main thing. They are important parts of our daily life. They are important parts of our existence. But they cannot be in the driving seat! The should not be in control. Our feelings are more like sensors with a strong interior momentum. They strenthen particular elements of our perception, and they suppress other elements of reality. Feelings change sometimes rapidly, even if the reality is still the same. They are not a reliable guide, in general. On the other hand feelings can point us to things which our reason cannot detect easily. They usually arise from the complete system of our body, mind and soul - taking into account many parts and merging it into an integrated state.

What is a reliable guide when we pray? It is the word of Jesus itself! When he states the truth, it remains the truth independent of our emotions towards it. We might feel lonely, but God is there. Our feelings cannot change that. We might feel ugly, but he loves us and has given a particular beauty to everyone! So his word is a reliable guide. He said he has made everyone special, to serve his purposes. He has a purpose for you and for me. This purpose is there for us every day independent of our feelings!

We cannot expect that every prayer session we do is full of special feelings. It is interesting that many of them will be - when we continue to pray on a regular basis. But there is no promise that every single prayer session is accompanied by particular feelings. It is good to pray whatever feelings we have. If our feelings are negative, let us bring our problems to the Lord. If we are full of joy, we thank the Lord. If we are weeping, we weep to the Lord. If we experience pain, we bring our pain to him. When we need help and orientation, we bring to him our loneliness, our needs and our search for his guidance. [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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