What language does God speak? . Could it be ancient Hebrew (as in the Bible)? Or modern Chinese (as in the largest national population in the world)? If it's either of them, I'm stumped and can't pray! It would be handy for me if he speaks English, but which of the hundreds of dialects and accents would he prefer? The Bible assures us that God speaks, contrasting him with the "dumb idols" NOTE 1 of paganism - and Jesus clearly said "my sheep hear my voice" NOTE 2 - but when God speaks to individual Christians, they rarely report hearing an audible voice. Rather, they sense the stirring of an idea that becomes a message in their head. The message, of course, gets wrapped in the words of the hearer's own language.
Truth
God isn't bound to human language,
and he doesn't judge our grammar and vocabulary when we speak to him. We may use one of the many beautifully
crafted prayers that have been written over the ages. Or we may pray in our own words. But we don't need to
match the poetic language that we read in the prayer books. If our prayer language is clumsy, stumbling,
or ungrammatical, he still listens. When we make our requests to him, the language he likes to hear is the
simple language of truth. He wants us to say what we truly mean, and what we sincerely believe.
Intention
Sometimes when we try to pray, we find ourselves stumbling for words, just as Paul described:
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We do not know what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit
himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." NOTE 3
When we run out of words, we discover the natural language of God - the language of intention - the creative
language he has always used. When God created the universe, he didn't reach out and mould it into shape with giant
hands. He spoke - but not in a booming voice that struck terror in all who heard it. He calmly focused his intention,
and everything changed.
Love
When we pray, there may be much that we can put into words, and that's good. But, when we consider some of the items
on our prayer list, we may be quite uncertain what to say. At those times it's good to focus our care on that
person, that place, or that situation and yearn in silence for the best possible, or impossible, outcome
Quietly contemplating the subject enables us to discover our feelings, and to reach out in wordless love.
Silence
Love is the ultimate language of God, and words are often inadequate to express it. We can't always find the
language to express what we hope for in our prayers for other people. We may even struggle to say what we want
for ourselves. As for worshipping God, we can rarely find rich enough phrases to express our admiration.
But he doesn't need us to be skilfully expressive. If we have love, it's enough to linger for a while and
be silent in his presence.