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Steve Buchele, a Mission Society missionary to Ghana, recounts a trip to an ashram in India. While traveling to India for training, Steve took a few tours around the country to learn more about the culture. He shares his experiences here.

I had gone to the ashram skeptical, but wanting to experience the part of a devoted follower, praying to the part of God that is worshiped in this place. I was hoping for something in return—a revelation from God.

I prayed through each item from my list: my brother Rod who is dying of liver cancer, for my children, for Suzanne and our marriage, and a few other situations. My prayer list is usually a list of three-to-five things, and since I did not know how much time the tour guide had allotted for this part of the tour, I prayed quickly and was done.

High speed prayers should have felt unfamiliar but, looking back on it, I realize I had been praying that way for some time. I had a habit of setting the cruise control and praying for a time when I felt busy. Now I was less busy, but my prayers had not downshifted; they were still fast-food prayers of obligation.

Walking away from the ashram, I casually asked one of the young people on the tour if God had revealed anything to her. While thinking about her answer, she asked, “What did God reveal to you, Steve?”

I didn't even know there was a revelation waiting for me until she asked. When God wants to reveal something to me, it usually is not complicated or complex. God just hides it in my consciousness until something triggers me to look for it, or I trip over it like a stray toy in the night.

“You pray too fast,” God said.

Those words did not form in my brain, they were just there, like they had always been there, waiting to be seen.

I knew my revelation was from the Lord; I knew it was true, so I slowly asked, “What needs to change?”

God replied, “Come into My presence.” And with that, my prayer life changed.

I started to pray without asking God for anything.

There was still plenty to ask of God, but those things were not driving the reason I was praying, and that changed everything.