NAMING OUR DEEPEST NEEDS

Peter Blood-Patterson, Quaker author wrote:

“I think many Friends (Quakers) feel unable to pray because of uncertainty about what prayer is. Many think of prayer as talking to God or asking for specific things. I do talk to God and ask for results at times, but I’m not really sure what happens when I pray in that way. If I believe, as I do, that God knows everything about me, why name my needs to God? I believe this is because somehow God needs me to name my deepest needs in this way.

When we hold someone in the Light, we are asking God to be with them and with us in our caring for them. We are asking God to help our love reach those we are praying for. God can and does respond to prayers of this kind. I don’t know whether offering such prayers changes God, but such prayers change me. This is very different from asking God—or the universe—for a specific outcome.” (Friends Journal)

This reminds me of some of my early studies on prayer and learning the importance of believing that the Lord wants/needs us to name our deepest needs, not to alert the Father but to drill it down into our own minds, souls and spirits. ‘God needs us to name our deepest needs’ simply for our sake.

“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” Jesus