Pray and Trust

How do you come to prayer?

 

When we are in between flights, what do we do?  Read a magazine, read a book, make a couple of calls, text away... but do we pray? When we have a whole evening without any concrete plans, what do we do?  Watch TV, go to a movie, read another chapter in that book, check your personal emails, make more phone calls, text some more....but do we pray?

 

Realistically, there appears to be empty hours in our lives to pray, so there must be something else getting in the way of prayer than just being too busy!

 

Our ambivalence about prayer reveals to us what kind of God our God is.  God is not someone who just seeks our occasional attention, and waits for our occassional prayers.  He is not someone who can easily do without us and will be quite content when we are willing to spend a couple hours of our weekend talking to Him. If God were that kind of God, then we wouldn't experience so much tension when we enter into His presence to pray.  Those tensions come from the awareness that God is a jealous lover.

 

Deutoronomy 4:24 (The Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God). Moses said this to the people of Israel and Paul said to his brothers and sisters in 2 Corinthians 11:2, that he loved them with the jealous love of God.  God is asking for our total, undivided attention. Not only is He asking for our undivided attention, He is also asking us to trust Him whether things are going well or going against us. 

A great quote I read goes like this "The root of all sin is the suspicion that God isn't good or isn't good enough" (revised). In the times of pain, questioning, anger and frustration, you need to say to God, "I'm not going to stop believing in your goodness, but I've got to know you better. I'm not demanding that you do anything for me.  I'm coming to you just for you."

That, ladies, is an appetite for God.  That's seeking Him with all of your heart.

Prayer and Trust Builders:

• How have you learned to fit times of prayer and focusing on God into spare moments of your day?
• What troubling question do you wish God would answer for you?
• How can you practice coming to God just for Him, without demands?

Slow to Anger

What happens inside of us when someone criticizes us? I know for me, the first impulse is to defend myself; especially if I think my actions were justifiable, ... right?  While turning the tables on our "attacker" is natural, it is also potentially dangerous to our relationships (any type of our relationships that we have).  This is how daily everyday events quickly turn into major blow-ups.

Walking with God

Genesis 6:9 - (The Message) This is the story of Noah: Noah was a good man, a man of integrity in his community. Noah walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. We see scriptures of people who have walked with God. We see it in Abraham, and here also in Noah...and I sometimes wonder how I could add this to my life testimony - my walk with God. Depending on how long we know someone, most of the time when walking with them, we walk silently. Meaning, we do not do a lot of talking, we do not make a lot of comments, but there is a silent understanding that we are seeing the same thing, we are experiencing the same sounds and smells, we have the same reactions to things, or we understand the other person's reaction without them saying it. In fact, the better we know the person we are walking with, the less we have to say and the more we enjoy our walk. AND although this may sound like a relationship or a marriage, it can be but totally isn't. It applies to a friendship also. What about walking with God? Can we pray without ceasing as simply as we breathe without ceasing? Prayer could include our nonverbal communication with God. Just as we reach out in our other relationships, we can reach out to God without words. Just as we smile at a close friend, we can also offer a smile of appreciation to God. As I began to focus on my walking with God, I was able to see where I had been walking in my own direction, and how much of a distance there has been between God and I. Now, its harder for me to go on with business as usual when I am not at peace with God or with another person. Ladies, for us to walk with God, our whole self - body, soul and spirit - needs to be in order. Walk Builders:

• In what ways do you reach out for fellowship with God?
• How would you characterize your "walk" with God? Comfortable, close, distanced, awkward, serious,?
• What might make walking with God a more natural habit for you?