without words

Have you ever experienced a time when you wanted to say something but could not find the words? have you ever felt that sometimes your heart just does not seem to connect to that part of your brain responsible for processing your thoughts and feelings into words thus you are unable to express yourself no matter how hard you try?

It is when we feel intense emotions – when we are taken by surprise; when we are nervous; hurt or weighed down by our own anxieties, worries and fears that the mind just cannot seem to grasp the gravity and plethora of emotions we are in that our lips are silenced.

Incidents like this are not limited to conventional social situations but can occur during our personal prayer times as well.  We pause and say our prayers but they somehow feel uninspired and routinary.

Quite ironic isn’t it? Just when we desperately need to commune with God are we unable to reach out to Him. We falter with hearts feeling disconnected with what we are saying that our personal prayers seem like empty words as we struggle to tell God how we feel.

We often think of prayer as a verbal conversation with God but it does not have to be.  Without words we can commune with God by listening to worship songs and just getting lost in the music and lyrics; by offering our daily tasks for His glory; by reading inspirational books and the scripture…

… by simply spending sometime alone, finding beauty in our surroundings and focusing only on Him – by using all our other senses to connect with Him because drawing close to God means reveling in His presence, feeling comforted by His warm embrace and finding peace in silence.

When we stumble with the words of our prayers may we learn to pause and rest in knowing that God hears the silent cries of our hearts and before long, mouths will again proclaim God’s greatness and glory.