The Practical Meaning of Prayer: How God Speaks to Us Through his Children

This morning, we started the Camino de Santiago, and already, I have seen God’s blessing on our team through the time we have spent hiking this pilgrimage together.

I came out of our team’s travel day from Atlanta to León, Spain, feeling a little under the weather with a bit of cold, and I went to bed on Monday night just praying that I would wake up on time in the morning, feeling better and ready to start the hike. This prayer was answered, and our team had a fantastic time hiking on this first day. We have had some amazing interactions with other pilgrims, and the conversations have been fascinating.

Of all of my conversations today, the one that was the most impactful was an older woman who was hiking by herself. We greet our fellow pilgrim “¡Buen Camino!” and begin a conversation with her (Fun Fact: Whenever you are a pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago, the traditional greeting you give to other pilgrims is “¡Buen Camino!” This translates roughly to “Good Way!”). As we are talking with her, one of our team members asked her what prompted her to hike the Camino. She told us that her son had recently passed away about a year ago and that she was doing this hike for him. She went on to explain that every day she prays for one or two of the pilgrims she meets every day while hiking. Today, she prayed for an older woman she had met yesterday who was plagued with some disease or ailment. She told us that tomorrow she would pray for our journey or journey school ;).

This encounter just reminded me the importance of praying for other people continually. I don’t know how often I have told someone, “I’ll be praying for you,” but I don’t even remember what they told me the next day. Prayer is an essential aspect of our spiritual walk as Christ followers, and it is so easy to find ourselves looking at prayer as a pre-dinner ritual or something we do whenever someone needs help. The reality is that we all always need to talk to God and rely on him entirely.

On the other hand, our leader/mentor Seth has been reminding us to do what he calls the “listening prayer.” All this means is that our conversations with God must go both ways. It is essential to ask God for protection, provision, blessing, healing, or even deliverance, but God also wants to speak to and guide us. There are so many things that God wants to reveal to me, and I have been convicted recently of not giving myself the time to listen to his voice fully. Yes, I read my bible, and yes, I pray, but there is another sort of guidance and voice from the Lord that only comes through sitting in silence with him and meditating upon his goodness and his mercy upon us. I think back to the story of Elijah in the cave in 1 Kings 19, where God says to Elijah, starting in verse 11 and ending in verse 13,

“Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

The Lord keeps using this passage to convict and remind me that he wants me to hear his voice. Sometimes the Lord uses just the silence to speak to us, all he wants us to do is listen to him.

What I keep praying for over this journey is that the Lord would open my heart to a soft space to remember and pray for others, that I would listen to the Lord’s calling upon my own life, and that he would be attentive to his will for me.