Taking the time to pray would seem to me to be one of the more challenging traits of the Kingdom life. It takes faith to do it. It takes patience. It takes vision. It takes confident trust in God.
For many, including myself for many years, prayer was that church thing that I should do; but didn't. I could give excuses. You've heard them; maybe even done them. Prayer is boring. I prayed and God didn't answer. It seems to be a genuine struggle to faithfully enter into that God-connection zone.
For me, I was treating prayer as if I were at a McDonalds drive-thru. I'd like a blessing here with two orders of safety there. Hold the struggles, please. Thank You. Amen. But prayer isn't placing an order at drive-thru speed. It is communicating with God as to how you dearly treasure Him while you thank Him for His interaction with you. Too, it is quite alright to share with God your most urgent needs.
I encourage you to pray with certain hope in the Spirit. Not everything goes as we wish or calculate. But we can be assured that He is responding to bless us the best. Jesus, in the Garden, ask Father to let him skip the rigors of the Cross. But it wasn't Father's will. The Son, then, went through incredible suffering in order to experience the ultimate blessing....the resurrection from the dead.
God wrote the Playbook!
Please, do tell Him your direst needs. And when at first these prayers don't seem to be heard, be assured that His response is already activated. Our job is to believe, endure, and watch. God will respond on His time; not ours. We are not driving by Him to place an order. We are, rather, walking with God and have the privilege of watching His responses unfold.
In my early days I didn't pray, didn't like to pray, didn't see the deep need to pray. And, I was the preacher! Today, as I have learned to tell Him Thank You before I place my orders before Him, I will walk and talk with Him repeatedly throughout every day. When you pray, try not to spend time with your words. But rather, spend time with your God. Brag on Him. Visit with Him. Know that He is most attentive.
We aren't approaching God to place an order. Rather, we are interacting with Him to know His heart, His will, His call, and His direction.
2 comments:
Thank you. As always another timely and encouraging thought. I appreciate you.
Terry, during CrossView Ministries Days, we received up to 3,000 calls a week. The year we had CrossView Hopeline open 24/7 was when we averaged 2,500 calls a week.
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