“Pray to God, fine; but keep rowing to shore” – Russian Proverb

Starting a regular time of prayer can be challenge.  First, you feel guilty you’re sitting, kneeling or laying down.  Shouldn’t you be rowing that boat instead of laying about?  Then when you do, you’re not sure what to pray.

• Should it be formal,  “Our Father who art in heaven….”
• Should it be desperate?  “Help me out God, I need a little sumthin’ here”!
• Should it be conversational?  “Hey Lord, hows it going?  I thought I’d, ah, stop by and see if we could rap about a few items”

Heck, should you be praying at all for anything for yourself?  Why not just pray for world peace or your neighbor’s ill dog?

The fact is, that God loves hearing from us.  He loves hearing from everyone, including transgender men and women, the abused and the safe, the out of work and the employed, the bankrupt and the rich.  From the story of the Prodigal Son, to Abraham negotiating with God about saving his nephew Lot, to God telling Jesus the cup he had to drink from was not going to be removed, God accepts us, welcomes us and hears us.  And he knows what you need before  you even ask, what a great deal!   But, what if you don’t know how to pray?  What if your really afraid he might answer?  What then?

Well, first, you actually need to pray.  On the whole topic of “what if he answers”, well hold that thought for a minute.  Let’s talk prayer mechanics first!

1. 10 Minutes to Intimacy with God:  Sounds crazy I know.  But trust me, even without coffee, find a stop watch, and sit, kneel or lie prostate and just give your self 10 uninterrupted minutes.  That’s step one.
2. Open your Bible to the Psalms:   Now you may not have a physical copy of a bible or you may not be a Christian, no worries. If your a Christian without a Bible, or exploring Christianity, either go buy a bible, (The Biblegateway is a good place to start, or Amazon), or checkout The Bible Gateway for an online version.
3. Say Hello to God: God doesn’t take vacations with the Archangels, take sabbaticals or otherwise tune out.   He’s always here for us.  Start with a prayerful Psalm.  Now why do that?  Because many of the Psalms were in fact prayers that real people penned.  Some are from a heart of pain, others from joy, but they aren’t fiction.   But which ones?  Well any Psalm will work that feels right to you, but here’s a few you can try to get you going (thank you to The Prayer Guide & Awaken to Prayerfor these ideas):
   1. When you really need some help?  Psalm 108
   2. Feeling like you won’t make your goals when others are?  Psalm 10
   3. Is someone falsely accusing you? Psalm 7
   4. Do you face trouble of some kind?  (whether your the source of your trouble or not) Psalm 33
   5. Are you being drawn to do things that are potentially harmful to yourself or others?  Psalm 55
   6. Wanna thank and praise God? Psalm 100 and 150
   7. When you want God’s protection, Psalm 27 and 91
   8. Need a little divine guidance?  Psalm 32 and 27

Now, the bible isn’t like a book of charms and God isn’t a divine vending machine.  If he were, Jesus’ prayer to not have to go to the cross to die for the sins of the whole world would have been answered.  God would have found another way. And this brings up the point, “what if he answers”?  What then??

From studying how other people prayed in the bible, and from more modern experience, I found God has three main general ways to answer:  Yes, No, Wait.   Having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ is exactly that, a relationship.  So there are no formulas here on “if I do x, God will do y”.   But from my experience (and yes your mileage will vary)

• “Yes” – He may say yes and you may get what you need but God may provide it in a way you did not expect.  And it might involve your rowing that boat in a way that’s more risky than your used to.  You might even have to step out of your boat altogether!
• “No” – The big cosmic rejection at the buzzer.  Accepting a no might really be tough to swallow, but, wouldn’t you be glad he said no to get that new job if it turned out to be horrible scam that would have ruined you as it had the employees already at the zombie company you were eyeing?
• “Wait” – This is the longer part of “yes”.  This is the one where you pray, pray, pray hoping for an answer.  And God asks you to “hang in there” and wait for the right time.  For us as the prayee this requires patience, faith and trust on our part.  He might be waiting for you to see you already have your “no “or your “yes” – you just need to row your boat.

When you are facing challenges in life, such as being a transgender man or woman, or when you really need to celebrate the goodness in life on a deeper level, prayer is your answer.   So sit, kneel, or stand but definitely spend 10 minutes with God, you’ll be so glad you did.