Teach Us to Pray

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves."
--Psalm 34: 19

"Your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
--Matthew 6:8b

There are many broken hearts in the world, many crushed in spirit. The news is full of tragedy and devastation in Japan following a massive earthquake and tsunami there. Closer to home, a student of mine emailed yesterday to share that her son has died from suicide.

Someone asked me the other day, as we watched the horrifying scenes of destruction from Japan on the television news, "How does one pray for a tragedy so enormous as this?" The scale of suffering is so large, whether it is the massive death toll from an earthquake or the never-ending emotional earthquake of a suicide, we hardly know where to begin in our prayers.

Today Jesus reminds us that God is not concerned with the quantity or the eloquence of our words. In fact, God is so close to the suffering and brokenhearted, he hears their prayers and ours even when those prayers are an unformed, half-choked cry for mercy, even the cry of anger and despair. He hears our prayers, even when our prayer takes the form of a question like, "How does one pray for this?"

That is prayer itself, a turning in awe, horror, fear, wonder, longing, and faith with utter surrender to the One who knows, who loves, who saves.

God of Mercy, hear our prayer.