One Glance Is All It Takes

One of the biggest enemies of prayer is complication. We make prayer way more complicated than it is!

As a recovering perfectionist, I know the feeling of low-grade shame that comes from that “should” voice, especially as it relates to prayer. I’m continually guilty of thinking that my prayer time “should” include a long list of activities like Bible reading, journaling, reflecting, interceding, fasting, and on and on. Or, I’ll feel like prayer “should” include some sort of emotional experience, and if it’s only dull and routine I can feel like I’m missing something. Can anybody relate?

I want to encourage us with something and hopefully set us free from that “should” voice with a simple truth: one glance is all it takes.

This sentence comes from the text of Song of Songs, a beautiful love song that most commentators throughout history have read allegorically as a song sung between God and His people – Christ and His bride.

Halfway through, the Bridegroom says to the Bride:

This is a profound truth in the heart of this song: once glance moves Him! It’s not the perfect routine, the saying of all the right words, or even (necessarily) all of the effort on our part that’s required to move God’s heart. It’s the simple act of looking at Him!

All it takes is to say the name of Jesus under our breath as we move from one activity to another.

All it takes is singing a chorus to Him as we do the dishes or walk out our door.

All it takes is remembering that God is with us as we breathe.

And, more than that, these simple acts move God’s heart! The simple practice of a two-second prayer remembering the presence of God with us turns prayer from a one-way effort to a two-conversation. God feels things in His emotions when we remember Him.

Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century French monk famous for teaching others how to practice the presence of God continually in their lives, encourages those who are learning how to walk in God’s presence with these words:

As I’ve studied the writings of my prayer heroes, this seems to be a common theme: one of the keys to building a prayer life isn’t the “perfect” quiet time, it’s learning to simply lift the mind and heart to God throughout the day. That even whispering the name of Jesus as we are doing the dishes, changing a diaper, or taking out the trash matters.

Teresa of Avila similarly writes to her nuns:

She basically instructs her nuns to talk and think less when they pray and simply look at God.

How can we let go of that “should” voice today, that feeling of inadequacy in prayer, and go back to where this all began – just looking at Him looking at us in love?

Pray this today:

God, would you help me to lift my mind and heart to you today? Would You help me to remember you in the normal moments of my life? Would you teach me how to be Your friend?