It has been said that the truest prayer is when I am utterly open to God, unprotected, defenseless, trusting. The best and simplest prayer is summed up when I say, ‘Here I am, O Lord, and just as I am’. It is the prayer where I open my heart, my whole being, in childlike trust, in simplicity. I simply entrust myself to Christ, who is always there for me. And I can do that, because I know I will be received in love. But such a prayer is in fact a response to what is being done towards me. First and foremost, there is the whole mystery of God’s openness to me, God’s vulnerability before me, in the self-giving of Jesus. This is the amazing thing.
The greatest reality in my prayer is God’s openness towards me, God’s childlike giving of himself into my hands in Jesus. The truth is here, and expressed in Paul’s hymn in the Letter to the Philippians about God’s self-giving in Christ, when he tells us that Jesus ‘emptied himself’, and also ‘humbled himself’ for us (Philippians 2:7, 8). Much could be said on this but the central thing is that God’s innermost heart is opened to me in love, through the person of Jesus. In my moment of stillness, therefore, Jesus is looking on me in love - and, further, becomes poor and vulnerable for me. Such is the way of true love, after all. And so my prayer becomes none other than a loving response in simplicity and childlike trust. Someone is saying to me, ‘Here I am for you’, and so I can say in turn, ‘And here I am, O Lord, and as I am, for you’.