Begin by taking deep breaths, calming your spirit, and praying the following prayer: “God, be with me; Jesus, fill me; Holy Spirit, come!”

This prayer is not a request for a far-off God to come and be with you. he already is! This is a prayer of availability and awareness. It is a prayer asking God to give you the grace to become available to him and aware of his ever-abiding presence. We have the will to dismiss God from our lives or to make ourselves available to him and become more and more aware that he is always with us.

Over my next four articles, I want to share with you how to become more available and aware of God’s presence in your life through his Spirit. It’s like connecting to a network where you need to know the password. The password to God’s network has little to do with spiritual disciplines but everything to do with our availability and awareness. Like our phones and other devices, we won’t receive a signal unless we put in the right password. The password opens up the router (or the source) and our device to receive and send a signal. But our spiritual password is not something we do; it is what we desire and open ourselves up to. Our availability and awareness password has to do with four things: attitude, approach, posture, and presence. In this article, we will look at the attitude of the heart.

Before you go any further, pull out your Bible and pray over Luke 18:9-14.

This parable can teach us a lot of things, and we will return to it in our next blog. But for now, I want to look at how it speaks to our attitude when we approach God. What is the attitude of the heart?

Look at the five “I”s of the Pharisee: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” The five “I”s in this one-sided conversation with God reveal the attitude of this individual’s heart. The conversation is egocentric and praises only one person (and it ain’t God). The “I”s reveal what the Pharisee desires most.

But look at the tax collector, the sinner. His only words before God are, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” His words demonstrate his availability to and awareness of God. His attitude is one that longs for God, because he knows full well who he is before God.

What are you hungry and thirsty for? What does your heart long for? What do you desire most? There are really only two choices here: self or God. Saint Ignatius of Loyola speaks to these two choices in his guidance through spiritual exercises. According to Ignatius, we have two choices, or two standards.

• The Banner of the Enemy (the False Self)
  Riches
  Honor
  Pride

• The Banner of Christ (the True Self)
  Poverty of spirit
  Insult and reproach
  Humility

As I contemplated these two choices, I began to ask myself, “How do I spontaneously react when I feel vulnerable or under attack?” The gut-level response you feel to that question reveals the banner you fly the most. Try considering what makes you frustrated, angry, excited, happy, anxious, or motivated. What do you Google the most?

When I choose my false self (and fly the enemy’s banner), I come to God in prayer, fasting, etc., with a focused desire and longing for myself. I only ask him for things I want, not for what he wants. I get mad at him because things are not going my way instead of asking him how my frustrating circumstances can praise him. I ask him for stuff, things, positions, possessions, praise, and recognition. And if he doesn’t answer me in the way I asked him, then I get angry, blame him, and question his existence.

But if my choice is my true self, and the attitude of my heart is bent toward God, then my desire and longing is for him. Before you read on, take a moment to and pray over the following passages: Ps. 42:1-2, Ps. 63:1, Ps. 84:2, and John 7:37-38.

Do you thirst for God? Do you thirst for the living water that comes through Christ Jesus? To come to Jesus and drink means to believe in him and to enter a trusting, ongoing, and intimate relationship with him. It’s not just an intellectual pursuit with Jesus, but a wholehearted personal involvement and participation. To do that, we must have poverty of Spirit, be open to insult and ridicule that the world throws at us, and have humility before him.

Why do you come to God in prayer, fasting, or other disciplines? What is the attitude of your heart? What are your underlying motivations? Are you like the Pharisee, with prayers filled with “I’s,” whether spoken or intended? Or do you come to God available and aware? Knowing that he is God and that you desperately need him. You want nothing more than God, who is always a sufficient answer to your prayers.

Let’s all consider this: Maybe we don’t feel God has really heard or listened to our prayers because we weren’t really praying to him.

What is the attitude of our hearts when we pray, fast, etc.? Stay tuned for approach.