Surely one of the grandest transfers God has made in my life would be that of prayer. Don't misunderstand, I am not the great example of a praying person. As a matter of fact, I would be noted as the opposite. Yet, I encourage you about this topic because He has led me into a new dimension.
First, I would want you to know that as a minister I did not like times of prayer. They were boring, time-taking, and basically useless. I had better things to do with my time than to speak words to the ceiling so that I could salve my conscience that I did at least say a prayer.
It seems I was a man, trying to be of God, who believed in Jesus; but not the mode of prayer. Strange, don't you think?
A thing that needed to be adjusted was my mental vision of the prayer setting. I saw me standing upon flooring speaking words into the air. The words would wind their way up to God who sat upon an over-sized armchair. He was to make note that I took the time to remember to take the time.
Too, as long as we held to an old doctrinal stance that the Holy Spirit had wrapped up his work and dissipated into thin air, we had no Helper. He had been retired by the legalistic mobsters who took over by the dispensing of church rules that were based on lots of reason; but very little mystery.
When I began to realize God was not overlooking Heaven's balcony, but was here among us in Spirit form, prayer took on an entirely different perspective. I began to see God was, now, at my elbow and in my heart. He wasn't up there. God was down here.
Prayer is no longer a formal (and boring) amount of time spent religiously. It is a visiting conversation between four beings; Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and me. We walk and talk as good friends should and do.
Prayer is not church formality. It is personal relationality. We think together. We exchange notes. We co-labor (as II Cor. 6 states) with God. Interaction is much different than sending a message up the prayer chain with no response from the Balcony.
Prayer means two parties are on speaking terms; God and us. He awaits our communication. He loves to hear from His kids. I encourage you to visit with God as a person and not as if He were an unapproachable icon who is indifferent.
Our God is a not only welcoming, He reached first. He has signaled, Hey, wanna be friends? We say, Sounds good to us!
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