“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (Matthew 6:7).

A man was nearing death. A priest went to visit him in the hospital a few days before he died.

The priest noticed that the man had pulled an empty chair up beside his bed. What was that about?

The man explained that it was for Jesus. Someone once told him that prayer was as simple as talking to a good friend. So every day he pulled up a chair, invited Jesus to sit in it, and talked to him.

A few days later the man’s daughter came to tell the priest that her father had passed away. She had come that morning for a visit. He seemed fine so she left for a few hours. “When I got back to the room,” she explained, “I found him dead. I noticed a strange thing, though: his head was resting, not on the pillow, but on an empty chair that was beside his bed.”*

I can picture the scene, can you? A man in his final moments, sensing that the end was near, used what little strength he had left to get close to his Saviour, to talk to him, and to experience his embrace.

If we’re not careful, our prayers can become rote or stale. They can become something we recite, as if checking off items on a grocery list. Or they become dusty and distant, perhaps because we envision that God is above the clouds and barely interested.

Perhaps this dying man gives us a helpful reminder about speaking with God. Do we speak with reverence? Yes. But we also speak with honesty, simplicity and love.

Lord, here’s a chair.

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Notes:

-“What can we learn from Jesus’ personal devotional life?” Click here, or find it on ‘The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan’ wherever you listen (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.)

*-Max Lucado, The Applause of Heaven (Nasvhille: Thomas Nelson, 1999), 23.

-Bible quotes are from the NIV.