We have a prayer time in our youth group. Bearing in mind that most of our current members are unchurched, this is as much about helping them become comfortable with the whole concept of prayer as about bringing specific needs to God. Sometimes only one or two out of a dozen kids will pray. But they all have needs they're willing to share. This always amazes me: I don't remember having nearly as many fears and anxieties when I was their age.
One thing I notice is that they, and many other people, make prayer much more difficult than it needs to be. Prayer doesn't need to be expressed in lofty, formal language. There are no special phrases you have to use, there are no 'magic words' that grab God's attention. Prayer is just conversation with a friend.
And that brings up the issue of relationship to Him.
The older I get, the more I'm convinced that relationship is everything. Ministry isn't about theology or organizational structure or being theatrical, it's about connecting with people. Stepping outside yourself far enough to meet them where they are.
"... anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6)
Relationship with God is about connecting with Him where He is. The beauty of this is that the Lord made the first move. He came to us in human flesh. He took the trouble to identify with us in our neediness. And He made the greatest overture of freindshp possible by dying the death we deserved on the cross and then rising from the dead in conquest of the most fearsome thing in our experience.
All right, at first it is a bit like having an imaginary friend. You feel a little foolish, talking to someone you can't see. But it's not all that strange. Here I am, writing to you, and I have no idea who you are or when you'll see this or if you'll respond. It's an exercise in faith and hope. Any conversation is, really.
The God of whom the Bible speaks wants to be your friend. He wants to be part of your everyday life. He wants you to just talk to Him, tell Him what's on your mind. Are you fearful or anxious? Are you happy? Are you confused? Have you accomplished something important? Are you feeling overwhelmed? Do you have hopes and dreams you're not sure how to realize? Have you been hurt or rejected? It can be difficult to find a human person who'll listen to these things and understand. But the Lord is always there and ready to hear.
And He doesn't just listen. He acts. He leads us and shapes us in the very act of prayer. Just developing the habit of taking everything we think and feel to Him is a transforming thing.
Don't worry too much about how you pray. Just do it. Do it often.
Showing posts with label relationship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label relationship. Show all posts
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Friday, March 30, 2007
Ask, then Seek
We are looking at Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:7) -- “Ask, and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.”
Last time, we discussed the verb “to ask” and concluded that asking requires making contact, it requires the admission of some need or desire, and also the admission that the person asked may have what we need or desire. Some level of relationship is created every time we ask for something. God wants us to ask because it begins or continues that relationship.
Jesus tells us to seek, and again, this is a verb of continuing action. Seek and keep on seeking.
Seeking adds a different dimension to prayer. When we ask for something, we are conditioned by experience to ask for it once. We are, in fact, irritated when we have to ask a second time. Seeking, however, requires and investment of time, effort and determination.
The verb implies that what we want may not be obvious or easily found. That getting what we want is not necessarily going to be immediate. It’s entirely possible that we don’t know exactly what we’re looking for. Seeking prayer may be brief, but it can never be casual. It is part of a larger effort to find something enormously important.
Seeking always has an object: In prayer, that object is always God: God’s mind, God’s will and purpose. God Himself. We may think that what we want is the resolution of a specific and immediate problem or the supply of a specific need, but ultimately, that resolution is only to be found in the PERSON of God, not in an isolated thing or event.
Seeking requires an openness to learn – we search for something because we don’t know where it is or how it is to be obtained. Perhaps one of the reasons we don’t seek in prayer is because we’re more than a little afraid. The path to what we want may not be an easy one. It may not lead us where we expect to go. It may require of us an effort we don’t want to make. It may take us out of our familiar comfort zone. And what we find may not be precisely what we expect.
But that is the great adventure of prayer – the traveling of paths less worn, the experience of blessings we hadn’t dreamed of in the ‘detours’, the revelation of things about ourselves that we hadn’t known, the discovery of depths we hadn’t imagined. Seeking prayer IS an adventure. It is not for the spiritually timid.
But anything worth doing is worth the effort.
Again, Jesus is very positive here: seek and you WILL find. You will find God Himself. Provided you invest yourself in the effort.
“…you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12-13)
And there is a caveat, found in Isaiah 55:6 –“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.”
I don’t know when it will be, but there WILL be a time when God cannot be found. When you will no longer have the opportunity to seek. Certainly, if we have not made the effort to find Him before death, we will not be able to correct that oversight afterwards. Or perhaps, if we put it off too long, we will become like Pharaoh. You may remember that God hardened his heart, confirmed his resistance and let him live with the consequences.
There is only one thing that is worth actively seeking in this life: an intimate knowledge of the Lord. Without that, nothing else matters. If we waste our lives seeking things that don’t satisfy our deepest longings, we will have nothing when we stand before Him in eternity. We just need to push away the garbage and do it.
Last time, we discussed the verb “to ask” and concluded that asking requires making contact, it requires the admission of some need or desire, and also the admission that the person asked may have what we need or desire. Some level of relationship is created every time we ask for something. God wants us to ask because it begins or continues that relationship.
Jesus tells us to seek, and again, this is a verb of continuing action. Seek and keep on seeking.
Seeking adds a different dimension to prayer. When we ask for something, we are conditioned by experience to ask for it once. We are, in fact, irritated when we have to ask a second time. Seeking, however, requires and investment of time, effort and determination.
The verb implies that what we want may not be obvious or easily found. That getting what we want is not necessarily going to be immediate. It’s entirely possible that we don’t know exactly what we’re looking for. Seeking prayer may be brief, but it can never be casual. It is part of a larger effort to find something enormously important.
Seeking always has an object: In prayer, that object is always God: God’s mind, God’s will and purpose. God Himself. We may think that what we want is the resolution of a specific and immediate problem or the supply of a specific need, but ultimately, that resolution is only to be found in the PERSON of God, not in an isolated thing or event.
Seeking requires an openness to learn – we search for something because we don’t know where it is or how it is to be obtained. Perhaps one of the reasons we don’t seek in prayer is because we’re more than a little afraid. The path to what we want may not be an easy one. It may not lead us where we expect to go. It may require of us an effort we don’t want to make. It may take us out of our familiar comfort zone. And what we find may not be precisely what we expect.
But that is the great adventure of prayer – the traveling of paths less worn, the experience of blessings we hadn’t dreamed of in the ‘detours’, the revelation of things about ourselves that we hadn’t known, the discovery of depths we hadn’t imagined. Seeking prayer IS an adventure. It is not for the spiritually timid.
But anything worth doing is worth the effort.
Again, Jesus is very positive here: seek and you WILL find. You will find God Himself. Provided you invest yourself in the effort.
“…you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12-13)
And there is a caveat, found in Isaiah 55:6 –“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.”
I don’t know when it will be, but there WILL be a time when God cannot be found. When you will no longer have the opportunity to seek. Certainly, if we have not made the effort to find Him before death, we will not be able to correct that oversight afterwards. Or perhaps, if we put it off too long, we will become like Pharaoh. You may remember that God hardened his heart, confirmed his resistance and let him live with the consequences.
There is only one thing that is worth actively seeking in this life: an intimate knowledge of the Lord. Without that, nothing else matters. If we waste our lives seeking things that don’t satisfy our deepest longings, we will have nothing when we stand before Him in eternity. We just need to push away the garbage and do it.
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