Think of a never ending conversation with the Person of Love that owns everything, and He is so generous He simply spends His time trying to give it all away. This Person can do anything at any time, their is no limit to His power. This Person is hilariously brilliant and thoroughly enjoys good conversation. That Person of Love is God, so if we are board in prayer the issue is on our end not His.
Prayer is a on going conversation with Love that never ends. It's a conversation with the One that has every solution to every problem, and He wants to help more then we want Him to. Simply getting to know Him as He is opens up far more favor with Him then long hours of pray methods and formulas. We are not His slaves, we are His friends.
Imagine a friend of yours and every time, or at least most of the time, the two of you talk you simply tell this friend what you need and want all while complaining and questioning why and what they are doing. Do you think that friend will be jumping at the chance to converse with you? Of course God is a loving Father and He never leaves us, but maybe He doesn't jump at conversation with those that simply want to gripe and whine over all the things that He needs to do for them. He has a personality, you know. He has a sense of humor, a brilliant one at that. Maybe sometimes He just wants to chat about what He wants to talk about, instead of us running through the list of what many have come to think prayer is.
Most of what we pray for He already gave us, so a lot of the prayers people pray He cannot answer anyways. He gave us the kingdom, and their is nothing outside of the King's dominion. God already gave us full access to all of heaven through Christ, your perspective on prayer and accessing all heaven has is far more important then all the begging and pleading God for what He already gave us. He gave us all His peace, love, joy, power, and the mind of Christ. Prayer is about growing in the understanding of what it is we already have and who we already are in Him, rather then reminding God of all the things He is not doing that we think He should be doing.
Let's take a look at Jesus talking about prayer. Matthew 6: 6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
7-13 “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what’s best—as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything you want! You’re ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes. (Message Bible)
Asking for what He already knows we need is how we humbly align our hearts and keep our thinking rooted in the Truth that with out Him and His grace we truly have nothing. Praying for what is going to happen anyways, prepares our hearts to be grateful when it does.
The evidence of healthy ongoing conversations with Love is a life fully alive and increasing in His abundance. Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" (NASB) The word for 'word' in this verse in the Greek is rhéma- a spoken word, made by the living voice. Your quality of life depends on how much you hear His voice, life is drawn from the substance of power and love in His freshly spoken words.
The definition of the word for 'praying' in the Greek is proseuchomai- an exchange of wishes. So when we carry out His will we are answering His prayers. Him carrying out our will, is Him answering our prayers. Yes, He carries out our will. We are not robot slaves that are not allowed to enjoy life and ask for things from their loving Father. The most important thought we will ever have is our thought about who God is. If you cannot see Him as a loving Father, you will not position yourself to receive the things a good Father wants to give you.
Psalm 37: 3 Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. (NASB) "Trust in the Lord," be-loved and be a believer. "Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness," that would be establishing His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. "Delight yourself in the LORD," the word for Delight in this verse could also be translated as 'enjoy your life with God.' The result of this lifestyle is, "And He will give you the desires of your heart." It doesn't say He will give us the desires of His heart, but I can assure you that we truly do want the desires He has in His heart for us. A good Father in the our world would do everything they could to bring about the dreams of their kids, and support them in the desires they have in their life.
He is a Father that desires His desires come because His desires are the purest dreams for us and earth that their can be, and in the process of living a lifestyle of making earth look like heaven our heart gets refined with more and more purity and our desires sync with heavens. It's a glorious exchange of heavenly wishes that propel hope and excitement in such beautiful ways that it is hard to put it into words.
Love is set on building others up into their destiny. Love, "does not insist on its own way," 1 Corinthians 13:5. Wait, God is not out to get His way? Nope! He is Love, not control. He has wishes that He asks of us, but it is always our choice. He is not a controlling tyrant, He is a loving Father. He finds willing vessels to carry out His will of making earth look like heaven. He doesn't control us into obedience, He loves us into obedience, because obedience is our true identity and the place where we truly want to abide. Obedience is where the yoke is easy and the burden is light, Matthew 11:30.
God's will is that none should perish, 2 Peter 3:9. Well people are perishing all around that don't know Him. He is not getting His way in that matter, why? We are not answering His prayers and sharing Jesus as a lifestyle like we've so clearly been asked to in the Word. He doesn't hold it against though, 1 Corinthians 13:5, He is love and we cannot change who He is. Getting to know Him as He is, is the best thing we can do for ourselves and anyone around us. Us being obedient is where God's wishes get fulfilled, not because He needs slaves to feel better about Himself, but because obedience to His wishes is the place of complete prosperity. "Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers," 3 John 1:2.
No comments:
Post a Comment