Lord, I can't pray

Lyrics

About this song

Lord, I can't pray…
Try as I may
I want to, Lord, and I wish that I could
But it doesn't come out as I hoped that it would
When I come to the place of quiet devotion
I find that my mind is full of commotion.

Lord, I can't pray…
Try as I may
It's not the roar of the world outside
But the noise that I carry inside of my mind
The thoughts, the intentions, all sorts of distractions
The things that I fear, the worries I bear…

Please carry my worries, ambitions and fears
Reach out in your love and dry up my tears
Help me abandon my fear of tomorrow
And dwell in the NOW, where there's no cause for sorrow

I think I'll stop trying to pray.
I'm here
And it's quiet,
So I'll stay.

Martha realises she has made a fool of herself and recognises her weakness in 'the prayer department'. The song recognises that there is much more to Martha's story than the version that most people remember. She certainly missed the point in that early meeting with Jesus when she gave more priority to acts of service than to actually communicating wth him. But the same Martha later became the only person other than Peter who clearly recognised Jesus and the Messiah... she had learned a lot in the meantime.

"Lord, I can't pray" is a journey of self-realisation that each of us needs to travel on if we want to experience true prayer. This is the kind of prayer that listens to God, rather than giving him our advice and instructions.

Eventually, we must learn to stop talking and just wait in his presence. That is where prayer really begins.