Dependent, Intimate Prayer

So I was reading in a book yesterday (The Contemplative Pastor - by Eugene Peterson), and he suggested some thought provoking ideas.

Early in his ministry he taught seminars, archaelogy, church history, and was very successful at it. In a sense, he operated as a local mini-college professor within his own church. Yet what he discovered was that people really weren't coming to learn what he thought they wanted. Really, they were coming because at the core, these people wanted to learn how to have an intimate relationship with God.

So what did he learn? He learned that what the people wanted, and what the people needed most, was in fact Not the ability to talk about God, but rather to talk with God. In short, he realized that the single greatest thing he could do as a pastor was to teach people how to pray.

People need to learn how to attend the inner being. They need to learn how to talk with God themselves, to have an intimate relationship with God, and I agree. We all need this. Myself. Parents. Students.

He suggested that there are three types of language that people learn.

     Language I: This is the language of intimacy and relationship...not so unlike a baby's language. It
     is our primary and basic language for "expressing and developing the human condition."

     Language II: This is the language of information, most commonly understood within the education
     system.

     Language III: This is the language of motivation. Words have power and can be used to
     accomplish a goal, most commonly found in advertising and politics.

Which language is the language of prayer? Language I. Prayer is the language of intimacy and relationship. It's about expressing, within the limits of the human condition, a desire to be known, which is not a coincidence, but rather a result of "the fall"...and so each of us intrinsically and innately, whether we know it or not, crave a have a relationship with God, our creator, who created us in his image. But interestingly we swap out this language of intimacy of relationship for lesser others, which, ironically, often removes intimacy from prayer. We know to talk about God, or even to God, and often at God, but not with God.

It's about time that we moved ourselves into a primary proficiency of relationship with God, hence talking with him - not to him, or at him - where we find that our love for God awakens as Jesus asked, a "child-like" faith, that is dependent on God. After all, nothing we do demonstrates our dependence on God (an intimate relationship) more than prayer.

This couldn't be more important during seasons like Christmas, when God sent his Son to do what we could not, that is offer a sacrifice of atonement, that we might regain a proper standing with God, reconciled and redeemed, promoted from death to life, lifted out of darkness and into the glorious presence of God the creator.

The QUESTION is, do we have the type of relationship with God that demonstrates a constant dependency on him? Does our prayer life reflect this type of intimate language...like that of a baby who needs constant help?

So, what things have you learned as parents that encourage this type of prayer life in your family?