In this recent journey on "Short Prayers That Will Change Your Life," my own prayer life has taken another step deeper. Prayer has that unique quality of always beginning anew and yet always going further. In looking back, I find it hard to trace where exactly the interior shifts began to take place. But somehow through my own yielding to God, asking the Lord Jesus to teach me to pray, and the hidden ministry of the Holy Spirit - like the old song, "Lord, plant my feet on higher ground" - I find myself on a higher plane in my own prayer life. Let me share a spiritual principle that has been particularly helpful to me.

Real prayer is the real you talking with the real God. Now at first that idea seems rather lame, until you think about it. C. S. Lewis wrote: "The prayer preceding all prayers is 'May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.'"

Authentic prayer begins with the real you. Sometimes expressing the real you is difficult.

o To express yourself to God as you really are
o To know what you really want from God
o To tell God exactly how you really feel
o To pour out your heart to God
o To come to God, as the hymn said, "Just as I am"

Prayer is the unedited expressions of your heart to God. You pour out your heart to God. You let him hear your mind. You verbalize deep emotion.

God completely listens - without interrupting, without condemning, without detaching himself by thinking of what he is going to say next.

Just come as you are. Express everything just as you know it and feel it. You don't have to impress God with anything. You don't have to edit, censor, or measure out your words and sentences. You don't have to say it just right. You don't have to clean up your act first. Just tell it like it is to God.

How often do you talk with God heart to heart - sincerely, frankly, openly? Archbishop Anthony of Sourozh said: "As long as we ourselves are real, as long as we are truly ourselves, God can be present and can do something with us. But the moment we try to be what we are not, there is nothing left to say or have; we become a fictitious personality, an unreal presence, and this unreal presence cannot be approached by God."

The freedom to be honest before God allows prayer to be as God intended - a conversation.

Authentic prayer also focuses on the true God. The object of your prayer is the Triune God of the Bible. Your focus is on the Christ of Christianity. You're praying within the dynamic of the Holy Spirit.

Many people today want what I call a "spirituality without boundaries." They want a transcendent experience, a mystical encounter, or a psychic sensation, but with what? Evil spirits deceive. The angel of light can give counterfeit experiences that are not from God. Only the true God can give authentic spiritual experiences. A biblical fear of God is healthy.

Sometimes you might forget to whom you're praying. To get carelessly casual with God, or to think of God only from a great distance. Throw out those old pictures of God. God is not:

o An old man in the sky
o An invisible police officer
o Your Mom and Dad
o The missing piece in a puzzle
o A friendly wizard

Stick with the God of the Bible. That is where the Lord chose to reveal himself. Let your gaze be upon Christ. The Holy Spirit will guide you into true encounters with God.

Stop and listen to your prayers. Are you really praying? Are you really praying to the living God? In so many ways, you can fool yourself into thinking that you're really praying, when you're only talking to yourself about yourself. Get real. You are you and God is God, and real prayer is the real you talking with the real God. Yes, "Lord, teach me to pray!"