How to pray without being religious

I've only been turned down once when asking, "Is it ok if I pray for you?"

His family had asked me to visit him in the hospital, and it didn't take me long to figure out that he wasn't a "religious" person. A rough character, he managed to be somewhat polite but wasn't sure why this preacher showed up in his room.

When I volunteered to pray for his obviously fragile situation, he retorted, "Oh, no! Don't pray for me... I've been such a bad person that God wouldn't hear any prayers about me."

Like a running back faced with an agile blocker, I tried to recover and find a way around his deal-breaking comment.

My only hope was to help him understand that God actually wanted to hear from him... that God was interested in him and knew all about his sin, yet was willing to forgive. It's called "the gospel". And when he heard it, he became actually eager for me to pray for him.

Most of the broken people of this world can't imagine that God would want them praying to Him. Their bankrupt self-esteem and their inventory of shoddy religious teaching from the past conspire to keep them on the outside looking into a confusing, elitist religious world.

Jesus died to change all that. And to make God the Father accessible to the brokenhearted.

When the Obamas traveled to England recently, Mrs. Obama caused a minor stir in the media when she actually touched the Queen during a photo session. That just isn't done. One doesn't touch Her Majesty.

Yet the Queen didn't seem to mind. Things must be changing.

King Jesus certainly didn't mind being touched. By lepers, by women of ill repute, by drunkards and gluttons, by the demonized... even by "sinners".

And He certainly doesn't mind hearing what you have to say.