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How often do I come to God not with consumer requests, but simply with a desire to spend time with him, to discern what he wants from me and not vice versa? When I did that in the elk meadow, I mysteriously found that the answer to my prayers for guidance was around me all along. Nothing changed but my receptors; through prayer, I opened them to God. "For all things sing you," wrote the poet Rilke, "at times we just hear them more clearly."

Some have called meditative prayer a useless act, because we do it not for the sake of getting something, but spontaneously, as uselessly as a child at play. After an extended time with God, my urgent requests, which had seemed so significant, took on a new light. I began to ask for them for God's sake, not my own. Though my needs may drive me to prayer, it is there I come face to face with my greatest need: an encounter with God himself.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

An excerpt from Yancey's forthcoming book on prayer is available from our sister publication, Books & Culture.

Previous Yancey columns for Christianity Today include:

The Word on the Street | What the homeless taught me about prayer. (Dec. 29, 2005)

Exploring a Parallel Universe | Why does the word evangelical threaten so many people in our culture? (Nov. 3, 2005)

God Behind Barbed Wire | How a Nazi-soldier-turned-theologian found hope. (Aug. 29, 2005)

The Japanese Joseph | What the North Korean regime meant for evil, God used for good. (June 21, 2005)

A Bow and a Kiss | Authentic worship reveals both the friendship and fear of God. (April 28, 2005)

Global Suspense | The trick of faith is to believe in advance what will only make sense in reverse. (March 01, 2005)

Back from the Brothel | Thanks to brave ministries, prostitutes are still entering the kingdom. (Jan. 05, 2005)

Hope for Abraham's Sons | What will it take for us to overcome this violent world? (Oct. 27, 2004)

Forgetting God | Why decadence drives out discipline. (Aug. 30, 2004)

Discreet and Dynamic | Why, with no apparent resources, Chinese churches thrive. (June 28, 2004)

Doubting the Doomsayers | Thank God not everything they say is true. (April 30, 2004)

Cry, The Beloved Continent | Don't let AIDS steal African children's future. (March 04, 2004)

The Colonizers | The best preachers have challenged earth to become more like heaven. (Jan. 16, 2004)

The Leprosy Doctor | Paul Brand showed how to serve others sacrificially and emerge with joy. (Oct. 23, 2003)

Going It Alone | We should take heed when much of the world says it distrusts us. (July 2, 2003)

God of the Maggies | In broken sinners, Jesus saw not their past but their future. (April 25, 2003)

Yancey's Where is God When it Hurts, Special Edition, Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church, and his latest book, Rumors of Another World, are available on Christianbook.com.

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March 2006, Vol. 50, No. 3