Functional vs. Devotional Prayer

According to Myers-Briggs, I am an INTJ, which means that I like "alone time." So did Jesus. Listen to Mark 1:34 and Matthew 14:23:

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.... After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountain by himself to pray."

The problem is that when I get to that gloriously solitary place, I tend not to pray, but to plan. But Jesus prays.  He knew he needed to draw strength from his relationship with the Father. But many times I live like an orphan who has no Father. That probably is why I plan so much and pray so little. 

But a real relationship with the Father (not religion, not ritual, and most certainly not guilt or duty) is what fuels real prayer. When I know God as a Father who would send his own beloved Son, Jesus, to reconcile me to himself by dealing with the penalty of my sin on the cross, the motives for my time with God change. I know myself as a runaway, spiritual orphan, who has been adopted in love. I am the guilty offender who has been declared righteous. I am the enemy who is now a friend. I am the unlovely and unloveable sinner who has been made beautiful in the sight of God. All though Jesus. All by grace. 

It is embracing this gospel that transforms prayer from being primarily a functional list of requests (where I use God) into being a devotional relationship characterized by trust, hope, love, joy, etc. (where I enjoy God).  So the call on my life today is not to try harder to pray better, but to look upon the love of God in the cross. Then prayer will not be something that I have to do, but something that I get to do.