Communicating with God

Prayer Serves as Vital Link to the Lord

A year ago, Sevan Topjian didn't pray much. He prayed in the evening, but not with much passion.

Since then his life has seen a connection of religion and emotional need, and now he prays with the certainty of a man who recognizes the reality of Jesus Christ.

"Before, I didn't pray knowing I was being heard or that it was for a purpose and there would be a response," said the 21-year-old member of the St. Mary Church of Washington, D.C. "Now, I can pray knowing God is listening and that He will respond. Now things happen in my life that I can only attribute to prayer."

Through prayer, Topjian was able to make up his mind about transferring colleges. He will travel to Armenia for the first time this year, something he never thought would happen before prayer began to play a major part of his life. With prayer, he's found a comfortable life in the Armenian Church.

"I'm thankful everyday because my life has purpose and meaning. Without prayer, without God, there's no purpose for life," Topjian said.

A pillar of the Armenian Christian faith, prayer is a powerful form of individual communication that ties each of us to the Lord and brings Him into our daily lives.

Praying 101 If your life is not a prayerful life, it can be. Here are some simple ideas to help make prayer an integral part of your life, to give you a unique connection to the Lord. Read the Bible to better understand God's Word; it will help you hear Him as you pray. You don't have to read it from start to end, perhaps read the Proverbs first, or read sections that interest you. Take 15 seconds a day and be silent; don't "pray," just clear your mind in preparation to pray. Try short three-word prayers, such as "God help me" or "Thank you, Lord," which offer fortitude and blessing. Read and memorize some traditional Armenian prayers. They've stood the test of time and say so much and still come in handy today when you want to pray but don't know what to say. Don't worry about reading books on how to pray; however you connect with God is how you pray. Set aside a time to pray, maybe right before you go to bed every night, or when you get up, so you get into the habit of welcoming the Lord into your life. Just pray, because as you pray you become your own expert on what works for you.

Uniquely Personal

Topjian prays as much as he can now, before every meal, on the way to school, in the middle of the day, any quiet time he has.

"Prayer gives me the ability of speaking with God, putting all my issues on the table," he said. "I'm asking for help and seeking council. When I pray it's the act of offering all my thoughts to God, knowing He will respond."

Prayer offers us all a unique chance of communicating directly to the Lord. It doesn't matter how you do it, so much as that you do.

"When I say I pray daily, it doesn't necessarily mean I'm on my knees at bedtime," said Naomi Davitian, parishioner at St. Mary Church in Hollywood, Florida. "It's just that throughout the day I'm talking with God. I'm in communication with God."

One of Davitian's personal ways of praying has been to go for long car trips, even cross-country, by herself.

"All those hours I'm driving, I'm just communicating with God. I'm talking to Him, yelling at Him, and listening to Him," she said. "You don't have to go to church to pray, because God is not just in church. You should try to build a personal relationship with God; it doesn't have to be only in church."

Two-Way Communication

Communication is a two-way process. So as we speak to God through prayer, we are required to listen.

"Prayer is many times construed as just praising, talking, singing, all that stuff.  Really, what we do all that for is so that He speaks to us and we get blessings and guidance," said Fr. Yeprem Kelegian, pastor at St. Mesrob Church of Racine, Wisconsin. "What prayer is is God talking to us, or us listening to Him."

Listening to God only takes a desire and conscious effort, Fr. Yeprem said. Praying can be what we think of as traditional prayer, or meditating, or even walking in the woods. Anything is prayer if it opens your soul and heart to the word of God.

"Prayer means putting aside the world," Fr. Yeprem said. "It's a sincere desire to be with God for a moment, for a minute, for an hour. Being with God, that's what it is."

Being With Each Other

While prayer is a unique and personal action that every Christian approaches differently, there is also power in sharing your prayers.

Fr. Yeprem encourages his parishioners to share their prayer life with others. By telling a story on how prayer helped in a certain situation, Fr. Yeprem said people spread understanding of prayer's power and also create stronger friendships.

"When they share their prayer life, they'll find that helps other people know them deeper," Fr. Yeprem said. "They will find other people have things happen in their life that were affected by prayer. That's what the church is; we talk about important matters, not the Green Bay Packers. Christians talk about God and the God we find in prayer."

Sharing prayer can be an informal conversation or part of a scheduled gathering.

For the past few months, a women's ministry group at the St. James Church of Watertown, Massachusetts, has been holding a prayer circle every couple of weeks. About 10 members gather in the darkened sanctuary and pray together, slowly listening to one another as they put to words their prayers to the Lord.

"We found just listening to each other and being comfortable with the silence really strengthens us," said Laura Purutyan, one of the prayer circle members. "The Holy Spirit leads you to speak when you need to speak and listen when you should listen."

The women offer prayers for their family and friends, prayers for guidance, prayers for the Lord to watch over Armenia and the world.

While solitary prayer remains important for Purutyan, giving her a sense of focus and power to overcome temptations, the communal warmth created by the prayer circle makes prayer that much more powerful.

"It's amazing how just a little bit goes a long way. It refuels you for quite a while," she said. "You feel like you have this community that is a very deep faith community. And there is strength in that."

By Jake Goshert
July 2003