How Do I Talk to God?!

To Get Your GodJuice Flowing – Talk to God! 

This can be as simple, or as complicated as you care to make it. You can talk to God for just a minute a day, or literally spend the whole day thrashing things out with Him (and believe it or not, there are people who do this on a regular basis). 

When you start off trying to talk to God, you shouldn’t worry too much about what you’re saying, or how you’re trying to say it. Just as a baby’s first words are so precious and treasured and celebrated by their parents – even though fundamentally, all they said was ‘Mommy’ – that’s exactly how it is when you start talking to God. 

God knows that you feel like the world’s biggest idiot the first time you make the effort to try to talk to Him, but He’s still giving you His full attention. All you have to do is turn the tap on for the GodJuice to start flowing, and then just wait for the right words to show up, and for your conversations to get longer, easier, more meaningful and insightful, and more helpful, as you go along. 

In the meantime, even if you only manage to say one sincere word every other month, that one word is still moving mountains for you, spiritually. Even if you only manage to talk to God truthfully just once in your life, it will count for more than you can ever begin to fathom. 

So, especially when you’re starting out, it doesn’t really matter how much you talk to God, or what you say, or how long you spend doing it. But that said, there are still some broad guidelines for how you can make the most of your time talking to God. 

THE EIGHT SECRETS OF BOOSTING YOUR GODJUICE BY TALKING TO GOD 

1) Start Small 

It’s much better to get a regular shot of GodJuice for just five minutes, every single day, then to try to kick off with a whole day-long GodJuice extravaganza and then quit for months. Consistency and persistency nearly always lead to better results than show-stopping one-offs. 

As a general rule, Rabbi Arush says that the minimum daily personal prayer session for each person, Jew and non-Jew alike, is one hour (60 minutes). No matter what, set aside this time every single day, whether you end up saying even one word or not! But if you absolutely cannot do it, then every minute makes a difference. Do what you can, but do it every day. 

2) Don’t Censor Yourself 

Tell God everything that’s on your mind. If you want to experience real GodJuice, you have to be honest. If you’ve learned that you’re not meant to complain about anything, but you’re still feeling really angry, tell God that! He knows anyway, so your fake piety isn’t winning you any prizes. GodJuice is much more about owning up to your ugly truths than trying to present your beautiful lies. 

3) Don’t Pressure Yourself to Say Anything 

Especially at the beginning. God gives the words, and God gives the silence. Sometimes, the silence is exactly what you need, as it could be the first time you’re actually giving your inner dimension some time to express itself. It’s amazing what you can learn about yourself when you finally turn off all the ‘noise’ that’s blaring in your head. Cut the expectations and just experience the personal meeting with God Himself. 

4) GodJuice Isn’t Just About Talking – It’s Also About Listening 

Yes, tell God about everything that’s on your mind, thank Him for all the great stuff He’s doing for you, ask Him for help – and then pay attention to what God is telling you. This is where some amazing changes can happen, but only if you’re really listening for the insights that God’s going to give you. 

That doesn’t mean that you’ll literally hear God conducting a conversation with you (if that happens to you, it’s either really, really good, or really, really bad…) but God talks to you all the time via your environment, experiences, thoughts and ideas. Many a time I have asked a question to Hashem, only to suddenly know the answer! Other times, the answer comes to me within a short time through a Rabbi or a friend. The trick is to tune out your intellect, and tune into your soul, to really hear what He’s trying to tell you. 

5) Do It by Yourself 

If you’ve never tried GodJuice before, then trying to do it when you’re sitting on the bench at your local park with 500 other people around may not be the best way to start. Go for a solitary walk somewhere pretty, sit in your garden, or do it for a few minutes in bed when you wake up. In your kitchen over your morning coffee is another great starting trick. You’ll get over the ‘feeling stupid’ effect much faster if you’re by yourself and not worrying that someone else is watching while you’re apparently ‘talking to yourself.’  

Rabbi Arush says that this rule is the #1 hard and fast rule, because the heart is quiet when other people are around. No one should be able to hear you speaking to God! This is a private meeting, after all… 

6) Don’t Give Up! 

GodJuice is a learning process. I’ve had days when it was fabulous, days when it came very hard, and days when I spent most of the time just repeating ‘God is all there is’ because I was too shell-shocked to say anything else. God loves your effort, and He’s happy to hear whatever comes out of your mouth (or doesn’t even…). The more you work on your GodJuice, the more safe, happy, optimistic and confident you’ll start to feel, even if you’re having trouble just stringing basic sentences together. 

You just need to show up. God will do the rest. 

7) Get God Involved in Your Healing Process 

If you don’t get God involved in your healing process, then most of what you’ll learn in this book will remain at the level of being an intellectual exercise. But if you start talking to God about the changes you want to see happen, both in your emotional and physical health, and in your life generally, then the sky is really the limit. When God is involved, a huge amount of personal growth and change is possible, even in a relatively short amount of time. 

Stay tuned! Next week we will learn the eighth and final tip to boost your GodJuice…