German Heliogen brand radio showing “basket-weave” coil, 1935 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tuning the Radio Frequency.

The true nature of prayer seems to me to be a difficult thing for many people to grasp. As I have contemplated why this is the following illustration comes to mind.

Prayer is a lot like trying to find a clear frequency on our car radio. If we turn the radio on and we hear nothing distinct or just a bunch of static, we don’t give up and just turn it off. No- instead we typically search for a station we wish to hear by turing the dial or pressing the seek button. We work with it until something becomes clear and discernible. We work with the radio dials until we find the music we are looking for.

In the same way we should approach prayer. The problem for most people is that they are so distracted with the day’s events or the messages in their head that they simply can’t hear past the static. After running through their laundry list of needs, they simply quit speaking, never bothering to quite “tune in”. Thus they miss the presence of God.

Practicing ” the presence of God” is an art that allows us to be tuned into the eternal at all times. It allows us to always be set at the correct frequency, and to always experience crystal clear reception. When from time to time, life interferes and we lose “the God Station”, we become immediately aware and know to begin retuning.

The difficulty lies in learning how to recognize ” the God Station”. Until we learn to recognize the sound of that which comes over those airwaves we will remain perpetually out of tune. Much of what is wrong in our world is that people don’t realize they are out of tune. They don’t seek the right channel. They don’t recognize ” the God Station” and in fact, are tuned into some other really lousy stations instead. Learning how to tune into the presence of God through prayer, scripture study, worship, is essential to learning to recognize His voice amongst a myriad of other forms of noise and static on our radio dials. So the next time prayer seems to be not working for you remember to adjust your tuner. Search the dials. Wait and listen. Practice the art of listening as well as speaking. Learn to sit in His presence. Be still and know. After awhile, you may just find that you are tuned in quite clearly to ” the God Station”. Amen.