I've had my share of days where I ask God where He is or if He's there. As I grow through those times I find it hard to NOT see God. To me, He is very real, as real as any human being I can see.
I am sure most of you are familiar with the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name..." Maybe you've said it a few million times as a kid at the opening of a church service or maybe you've never heard of it. Something I really love is the illustration Jesus gives after teaching the disciples the Lord's Prayer as a way to pray, He talks about a person who needs food in the middle of the night because he has surprise guests. We are the person asking for food in this illustration and Jesus says, "If you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you everything you want—just because of your persistence. And so it is with prayer—keep on asking and you will keep on getting; keep on looking and you will keep on finding." (Luke 11:8 &9). God has blessed me with the ability to be persistent with Him. That's how I've learned to hear Him and grow closer as I pray... I just keep talking.
Prayer is dynamic. It's not about me asking for something that is immediately or magically changed. It's more about about having an open line of communication. For example, a few months ago I was on Facebook. I saw someone from high school that I literally hadn't thought about in eight years. After they came through my news feed, I kept having this person pop into my head. Each time I would pray for them, asking God for direction in how to pray for them. This went on for a few days. A week later, I met this person's mother, whom I had never met before. She shared with me her worries about her child, and I told her that God had placed her on my heart. The mother expressed how grateful she was that I was praying for her child, and it clearly meant a lot to her. I feel my open line of communication with God allowed Him to use me in this person (and their mom's) life, if only to give her hope. My thought here is, "Why did God even involve me? This person clearly wasn't impacting my life, but I can't fathom God's plan, I am just blessed to be a part of it."
It's also about recognizing that I have very limited control, but God has all the control I could ever need. The car accident I recently got in, I prayed for peace right away, and a minute later a total stranger came up to me and said, "Remember this accident may not be about you. It may be about the other person. Maybe they need a lesson in forgiveness or love." Their words were comforting and it was comfort I couldn't have given myself in that moment. God gave it through a stranger. My dynamic with God has such great potential when I say that I need Him.
I could go on with these experiences... times when I have seen God work through prayer, and its really exciting to talk about those life lessons, but I also know sometimes we don't get an answer right away or we don't get the answer we want. There are things that I have to wait on, but I find these waiting periods are still times when I see God working. When He says, "no" I often later see how his choice was better than mine, and I feel His gentleness and care. There is a peace that comes that is beyond explanation.
If you ask God to show himself to you, He will. If you are persistent He will help. He waits for us. And its ok if the conversation starts with something you are angry at Him for. It wouldn't be a real relationship if there was never a fight or two.
Honestly, there are many of you reading that I am sure I have prayed for. I may have run into you around town, heard that you were having a hard time with something, or even just saw your face on Facebook. Please, don't ever hesitate to ask me to pray for something, it is something I will gladly do. I will leave you with a quote from a book on prayer that really expresses my thoughts,
"Prayer is much more than just giving a list of desires to God, as if He was the great Sugar Daddy/Santa Claus in the sky. Prayer is acknowledging and experiencing the presence of God and inviting His presence into our lives and circumstances." Stormie Omartian