The last resort of the helpless

Prayer is something deeper than words. It is present in the soul before it has been formulated in words. And it abides in the soul after the last words of prayer have passed over our lips. 

Prayer is an attitude of our hearts, an attitude of mind. Prayer is a definite attitude of our hearts toward God, an attitude which He in heaven immediately recognizes as prayer, as an appeal to His heart. Whether it takes the form of words or not, does not mean anything to God, only to ourselves. 

What is this spiritual condition? What is that attitude of heart which God recognizes as prayer? ... 

In the first place, helplessness. This is unquestionably the first and the surest indication of a praying heart. As far as I can see, prayer has been ordained only for the helpless. It is the last resort of the helpless. Indeed, the very last way out. We try everything before we finally resort to prayer. 

This is not only true of us before our conversion. Prayer is our last resort also throughout our whole Christian life. I know very well that we offer many and beautiful prayers, both privately and publicly, without helplessness as the impelling power. But I am not at all positive that this is prayer. 

Prayer and helplessness are inseparable. Only he who is helpless can truly pray.

One Hallesby, Prayer (1931) pp.10-11 

We grow up learning to admit to almost anything but helplessness. "God helps those who help themselves!" we are taught, even though there is no such verse in all of Scripture. But helping ourselves is really no more than grasping - John Keats' "irritable reaching after fact and reason" - instead of simply waiting in the stillness of longed-for grace. Oliver Murray writes, 

We live in a world in which we are very good at grasping... 

Today, perhaps more than ever, it is about learning to receive the world — reality itself — as gift. Creation points beyond itself, not because we force it to, but because it comes from the hand of a Creator. Christ tells us, "Seek, and you will find." But Christian seeking is not the same thing as grasping. Sometimes we have to become quiet enough to notice what has been there all along. 

"We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us...  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit..." (Romans 8:26-27 NIV). To remain still, in the open acknowledgement of our own helplessness, is the very heart of prayer. And it's for this reason that contemplative prayer, and especially hesychasm, the prayer of helpless stillness, is so often the shortest way in Christ to God - to the ground of all that is given, of all that is.