The Sacrifice of Prayer

Prayer as offering the pieces of your life to God's transforming power.

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When Prayer Feels Like a Disappointment

Sometimes it’s easier to love the idea of something more than the actual experience of it.

This is how I feel about camping.

I love the idea of sleeping under the stars. I love the idea of cooking over an open fire. I love the idea of being surrounded by nothing but nature.

But I also can’t sleep without the white noise of a fan. I can barely cook with modern amenities, much less with nothing more than a flame. And the last time I went camping, I spent the entire night terrified that the moose rummaging through my site was going to somehow trample my boys and me to death—all because I wanted to be “surrounded by nothing but nature.”

Sometimes it’s easier to love the idea of something more than the actual experience of it.

And I can’t help but wonder if this is how we feel about prayer.

The Struggle with Prayer

I spent so many years of my life in love with the idea of prayer. I would read books that painted prayer as a beautiful portrait I was desperate to experience. But then when it came time for me to actually pray, it felt like finger paints smeared over a piece of paper.

There was such deep dissonance between the idea of prayer and my experience of it. As a result, I spent years searching for a technique that would finally align the idea with my experience. But no matter how many techniques I tried, the disappointment remained.

What I’ve come to learn is that my problem wasn’t one of technique. My problem was that I didn’t really understand what prayer was in the first place. And I so misunderstood God’s intention for prayer and what was meant to happen when I prayed, that no technique could fix my experience of it.

You’re Not Alone

My guess is that at least some part of this resonates with you.

I spend a lot of time talking with people about prayer. And by and large, I hear echoes of this very discouragement I’m describing. So I would bet that at least from time to time, if not every time, there is a strong possibility you find prayer difficult, dry, and disappointing.

If that’s true, at the very least be encouraged by the fact that you’re not alone. Prayer isn’t nearly as easy as we’re led to believe.

But the good news is, if we can better understand God’s intention for prayer and what exactly is meant to happen when we pray, there are a sea of techniques you might find that really resonate with you.

Psalm 5 & The Heart of Prayer

One of the best passages for understanding God’s intention for prayer comes to us from Psalm 5:1-3. And one of my favorite translations of that text comes to us from the late Eugene Peterson. Take a moment and slowly sit with these words:

“Listen, God! Please, pay attention! Can you make sense of these ramblings, my groans and cries? King-God, I need your help. Every morning you’ll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend.”

— Psalm 5:1-3 (MSG)

Did you catch that last sentence?

“Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend.”

That, friend, is God’s desire for prayer. Each day, God wants you to lay out the pieces of your life on His altar.

Offering the Pieces of Our Lives

You may not make the trek to a physical temple anymore. And you may not place a physical substance onto a stone altar. But make no mistake, each time you pray, you are offering the pieces of your life as a sacrifice to God.

Peterson unpacks this further, writing:

“A sacrifice is the material means of assembling a life before God in order to let him work with it. Sacrifice isn’t something we do for God; it’s simply setting out the stuff of our lives for him to do something with. On the altar, the sacrificial offering is changed into what is pleasing and acceptable to him. In the act of offering, we give up ownership and control and watch to see what God will do with what we offer him.”

Notice this: Prayer—whether it’s offered silently, out loud, or written in a journal—is offering the many parts of our lives to God. That offering is messy and imperfect. It’s often filled with our own pride, narcissism, and self-centered desires.

But thankfully, God doesn’t need our offering to be perfect. He just wants it to be genuine.

When you honestly lay all these pieces of your life on His altar, He looks at them and says, “Oh, yeah. I’m going to create something beautiful out of all this.”

Shifting the Focus from Technique to Trust

I want you to notice the freedom and relief this infuses into your prayers.

When we understand prayer as offering the pieces of our lives to God, trust, rather than technique, becomes the focus. Once our offering is made, our only responsibility is to step back and watch for His fire to descend. We trust Him to take hold of these imperfect pieces and transform them into something that is beautiful in His sight and good for us.

Now, please don’t think that I’m downplaying the significance of technique. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, part of what He offered them was technique. So when we think of prayer as a daily offering of our lives to God, allow me to suggest two “techniques.”

Practical Ways to Offer Your Life in Prayer

1. Identify the Pieces of Your Life

Determine the various “pieces” that make up your life and offer them to God through prayer each day. They might include:

• Spiritual Life: Offer God your questions, doubts, and uncertainties. Ask Him to reveal any areas He’s inviting you to grow.

• Emotional Life: Offer God your anxiety, joy, grief, or anger. Ask Him for comfort and peace.

• Relational Life: Offer God your family, friends, and community, especially any conflict or concerns you may be experiencing.

• Physical Life: Offer God your physical needs and health issues, or the needs of those around you.

• Vocational Life: Offer God your work, career, and sense of purpose.

• Financial Life: Offer God your finances and material possessions, especially any concerns you may have about financial security and how God will provide.

• Time and Priorities: Offer God your busy life, asking Him to help you focus on what truly matters.

Consider making a list or creating an image in some way that contains the various pieces of your life. Sit with that list or image each day and slowly offer whatever is necessary within each one.

2. Sit Quietly with God

Another idea is to sit quietly with God each day and simply notice which pieces of your life rise to the surface. There might be one or two pieces that are most on your mind on any given day. Talk to God about them. Tell Him how you feel and what you think. Express your longings and desires within these pieces. Entrust them to Him on the altar.

The Waiting Is Where Transformation Happens

Oftentimes, the offering is actually the easy part. It’s the waiting we find most painful. We long for instant results and immediate answers. But God’s transforming work in us often requires immense patience. When we wait on God, we allow space for Him to work in ways we can’t always predict or control. But this is the very space in which transformation happens—not in our control, but in our surrender. God works in our waiting.

Conclusion: Offering and Waiting on God

Laying the pieces of our lives on God’s altar and waiting for His transforming fire to descend is an intentional, active process of surrender. We present our emotions, relationships, work, and every part of our lives before God, trusting that He will do with them what is best. In the waiting, we watch for His transformative power to work in us—purifying, empowering, and guiding us toward His good will.

So take a moment today, and every day, to set aside a time, place, and plan for offering the pieces of your life to God.