Pray in your normal voice, just like when you're talking to someone you love very much
Would you talk to Jesus the same way if He were actually present with you?
Did you know that He calls you His friend? (John 15:15)
Maybe because I've been spending intentional, daily time praying for someone I do love very much, this has seemed so miraculous to me. My friend doesn't need to hear my piety or my religious words; she needs to hear that I love her and I love Jesus and Jesus loves her and is her advocate and is saving her right now. And thinking about how she would hear my prayers for her sets my heart in a softer place.
With people you love, your dearest friends and family, you don't need to prove yourself. You already know they love you and you love them and this frees you to be honest and humble and authentic. And in Christ, this is our relationship with God. We're not trying to impress Him because He already knows everything about us - and Jesus became all of our junk and died for it and lives for our intercession. So He already knows everything we are and everything we're not. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If you think you can't be honest with God because then He wouldn't love you anymore, it's too late. He already does. And He loves you still. Doesn't that make you melt?
Some of my sweetest times in prayer don't sound like prayer at all - they sound like me talking to a friend. And that's the privilege we have in Christ. We acknowledge God's holiness in coming to Him in humility, and we acknowledge His reality in coming to Him with confidence, cashing in on His promise for more grace to those who ask for it.
When you know that God loves you, doesn't that change the way you talk to Him?
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