“Lord, teach me to pray.”
This was my first prayer for 2025. I’m not one who typically chooses a word or theme for the year. But on December 29, when I pulled out a fresh spiral notebook and started journaling thoughts around the coming year, these five words poured immediately from my pen.
“Lord, teach me to pray.”
A strange prayer, perhaps, considering I’m a 50-something woman who has been church-ing and praying for half a century. Don’t I already know how to pray? Am I not yet proficient at it, even after all this time and practice? I can quote The Lord’s Prayer by memory as well as several Scripture-based prayers. I have the Book of Common Prayer sitting strong and stocky on my bookshelf, not far from multiple textbooks and trade books on the subject of prayer. I’ve done Bible studies on prayer, studied various practices of prayer, and utilized different tricks and techniques to boost my prayer life.
Am I not yet a master pray-er? Alas, I am not. I am a desperate, desiring, hungry prayer-wannabe. A woman who often struggles to do the one thing she needs most.
Why? Perhaps it’s because prayer is a lifelong relationship, one that ebbs and flows and changes in seasons. Besides, relationships aren’t about mastery, but about authentic, honest, and consistent connection. It’s more than that, however. I think my struggle is, at least in part, because the kind of prayer my soul needs most requires stillness. And I don’t do “still” well.
Maybe I’m yet another victim of our tech-infused, busy-addicted, attention-deficit-disordered culture. It seems ten minutes don’t pass without a buzz or a beep or a real live person needing my attention and response.
And yet, what if stillness isn’t a product of nature or instinct but the result of boundaries and discipline? I think it is. This is how the Psalmist described it:
“My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.”
Psalm 131 NIV
“I have calmed and quieted myself,” the author says (emphasis mine). Did you hear that? I have the ability to quiet myself. Yes, I can ask the Holy Spirit for help. But asking the Lord to quiet my soul while I’m scrolling my phone doesn’t solve my stillness problem. Asking the Lord to calm my anxious heart while I’m watching the news 24/7 isn’t productive.
It’s not enough to want stillness. I must do stillness. That means, like any habit or discipline, I need to take action to make it happen. To help us with this practice, I created a short heart poem from the five letters of S-T-I-L-L and pulled from the words of Psalm 131. When said in tandem with the act of breathing, it can help produce the stillness we crave:
- STAY, oh my soul,
- for a short TIME
- to INHALE God’s presence, [breathe in]
- LET GO of all worries, [breathe out]
- and LOOK toward Hope.
Be STILL, my soul. Be still.
Here’s the good news, my friends: On the other side of the discipline of stillness sits a feast of contentment for the starving soul. Our God promises to fill the cavernous void, cure our broken hearts, calm our anxiety, and quiet our chaos. And it begins with you and me choosing to sit in the Lord’s presence. To look toward His hope. And be still.
Michele, Gosh I love this post & the timing is SO GOD! I was recently given a mini carved cross with the caveat that the carver would not give it to me unless I promised to pray for him each time I saw it. It’s been in the pocket of my purse where my lipstick & balm are. It’s a rather deep pocket & I have to dig to pull out what I want. That cross gets pulled out first before I reach whichever lip treatment I’m going for & I keep my promise to pray for “that old man” each time. I texted a group of friends this morning, before reading your post, to be aware of the items & memories that prompt us to pray for one another in light of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 instructing us to pray without ceasing. Dear Lord teach us all to pray!!! Blessings (((0)))
Ahhhh I love that! Thanks for sharing, Ruth!
Oh Michele, I LOVE your heart poem! Thank you so much!!
🙂 Glad you enjoyed it, friend!
Love everything about today’s devotional. Thank you, Michelle.
You’re so welcome, Jill. May your day include a pocket of quiet stillness. <3
Thank you for today’s heartfelt devotion! This is what everyone can relate to. I’ll be printing and keeping your words to re-read them as I try to be Still.
Making it visible by printing it out is such a great idea, Peggy! Let us know how it goes.
Dear Michele….I really, really loved your devotion today and your poem on S T I L L is something I am going to put on a post-it to place right at my computer. For years, I was not able to be still ( I am 77 ), but I learned from church and all of the ( incourage ) women what was the right way. It is much easier to say what you need to say when praying if you are STILL and not doing something else as you certainly can’t focus on God while looking at your phone or for me, even having the TV on. I still talk to my Holy Spirit during the day and He helps me do whatever I am searching for. He is wonderful. Thank you Michele for your words. I loved them and it really has helped me to start my day in a good way. I have had one of those nasty viruses for the last 2 weeks and have been staying in my apartment so as not to spread my germs, but today I am going to go down for lunch and see my friends whom I have missed and pray that this virus is gone. Hope and pray you have blessed week. Monday can at times be the worst day of the week, but Jesus is telling me today will be wonderful. Love……….Betsy Basile
I’m so glad you get time with good friends, today, Betsy! Hope you feel much much better soon.
Thank you, Michellle… I too struggle with being still. But they’re such a payoff in joyful contentment,… You’re so right!
Glad I’m not the only one. 😉 Have a great day, friend!
Michele thank you writing today devotional. When I heard the words of what you wrote being spoken. Psalm 46:10 came into my head right away. It says “Be still and know I am God” We as followers of Jesus have to learn and be still in the busy world and not let our lives get so busy we don’t have time to be still and spend it with God in that quiet time with him. God is never to busy to spend the time with us. God makes that time to spend it with us. When we are ready to spend it with him. God is always ready. But are we ready not letting everything try stop us spending quite time with God each day. Satan the Devil will do anything to get everything to stop us having this quite time with God. By having texts come to our phones that we are tempted too look at them. We say I just look at it incase it is important. Or I text them when they have texted me so as don’t think I rude not texting them back or to save doing it later on. If have Kids them shouting Mum or fighting as Kids do with either. Then you as Mother you stop what you are doing go say stop fighting with either. Or having things come into our minds to stop us spending time with God. Or being busy we don’t have time to spend with God. That is what Satan will try to do as Satan will go try anything stop us spending time with God along with other things too. So we have to say no I am going to spend this time with God. Put my phone on silent not look at it until finished my quite time with God. Telling the kids to not be fighting play nicely as your going to have your quite time with God reading his word and saying your prayers if have any. Or even if that means discipling yourself to set the alarm each night to wake you up before the rest of house get up to spend time with God. Or doing it when everyone one else in the house at night is asleep etc. You have to really discipline yourself to do this everyday. As followers of Jesus that is what we are meant to do. Prayer time is talking to Jesus praying for the things we pray for. God likes us to do that and spending time reading God’s word. So as we can learn how to grow in Jesus to be the people God wants us to be in this world. So as the unsaved see Jesus in us. We feel as followers of Jesus so much better for spending that time with Jesus praying and reading his word. We as followers of his grow spiritualy. Like a plant when we first get it is so small. We have to care for it by doing that planting it in the garden or in plant pot with soil in the house and never forgetting to water it or it will die. We are the same as as followers of Jesus. God’s word is our spiritual soil and by reading God waters us with it to grow into the beautiful spiritual plants he wants us to be for him for the world too see. Just us and God no one else. No phones no interruptions. Even if we have to tell our kids if we have any and if big enough to understand along with if have any Husbands and our friends we are spending time with God do no disturbing me this my time with God just me and God. If find it easier to spend time with God during the day than early in the morning or before we go to bed at night. Also anything else we have to do put it of until later if we are people like that. This is going to be your quite time with God just you and God no one else. Reading his word and saying your prayers. Being still and knowing he is God. It does take discipline that can be hard for us. I know in my own life as I get tired easily as have a busy life. Get tired easily with health problems I take seizures. So I have had to learn to push through it all. Make time for God to spend time reading his word and saying my prayers. It has been hard as Satan has tired to make my life so busy that I get tired. Too tired with being so busy to read God’s word and say my prayers. So I have really discipline myself to spend the time with God in reading his word and praying. When I do that not let everything else stop me as Satan would want that. I feel so much better and don’t feel guilty that I have let the business of the day stop me spending time with God in reading his word and praying. Then my spiritual life grows. I become the person God wants me to be it shows in my life. As I do what his words say and apply it to my life. My prayer life is so much better. Yes it can be hard but you have discipline yourself. As all through my life I was child growing up who never sat still. So it has been hard. But I am getting there. My spiritual life has grown because of being still and spending time with God. Like the song. “Be still and know that I am God” that means being still knowing that he is God in this quite time with him just me and him. I say Amen to that.
You’re right, Dawn. It really is a discipline. May the Holy Spirit empower each of us to learn how to do it!
Thank you, Michele! My mind definitely goes on “spin cycle” a lot! I need stillness in my life. I will try your poem.
Hahaha YES! Spin Cycle! Perfect description. 😉
I will be journaling your poem in my Bible!
Glad to hear this, Maura! Much love!
Oh to calm myself and be still within is my task for today.
Psalm 131 has several verses about being content like a weaned child with his mother.
I know in my mind what I desire. I am in charge of calming my thoughts. I am to allow myself to be still. Now, I can focus on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.
God is Faithful even when we are not.
Glory to the name of Jesus !
Brenda
Ah, thank you for mentioning Psalm 131, Brenda! I’m copying-and-pasting it here for all of us to read and soak up.
“Lord, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp.
Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—
now and always.”
Thank you for this lovely post. I struggle with prayer too! As a child we were taught to memorize prayers and some I still remember. The Lord’s Prayer is the only one I pray daily. I’ve grown into a woman who seeks a relationship with my Savior, not just a statue that recites what others have written. I talk to my Lord and though I don’t always hear with my ears, He leads me to His word daily. So I don’t spew a ton of words in public, nor can I recite the whole Bible. But each day I receive words to tuck inside my heart and carry them through my day. I see signs of His love in everything and everyone I encounter through my day. So yes I am a prayerful woman now because I’ve learned to talk with my Savior and isn’t that what He wants?
I’ve grown to appreciate the Lord’s Prayer more and more the older I get. I didn’t grow up in a faith tradition where we recited prayers very often, but I’m seeing the value of having a few memorized prayers as I age. It allows me to recite slowly, contemplating each phrase and meditating on it. Thank you for reminding me of this, Leann!
Dear Leann,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I too also say the Lord’s prayer at least once every day, sometimes as many as 5 times in 24 hours. I too cannot recite the whole Bible, but maybe you know the 1 other prayer that I can recite from memory. ” The Serenity Prayer”. I helps me so much with the hurtful, heartbroken experiences that surround me every day. “God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. For quite a few years, I thought I had the wisdom to know the difference, but things happened and I discovered that I thought it was something I could fix and I couldn’t so this prayer depending on the situation is very helpful and don’t fool yourself into thinking you can. I found that Satan was playing mind games with me, but NO more. I really look at the problem and make sure I make the right decision. Many times, my Holy Spirit helps me if I am confused. Hope you don’t mind that I sent you an email…………Betsy Basile