Since we believe that praying is communicating with, "hanging out with" the most powerful purely loving and creative, can I say "interesting" being in the universe, why are we so reluctant and inconsistent in our prayer life? We have before us at any time the opportunity, as He Himself allows, to move the Being (in some way) Who spoke and created a world so vast we can hardly imagine it. I have started at a remedial level to study astronomy and I am just in awe most of the time.
When you add to this some of the shocking statements re prayer from the Bible, and the plainspoken way God makes it clear His desire to commune and fellowship and develop relationship with us, why is it so hard to pray?
Lack of faith? Let's face it, if you truly believed Bill Gates was your best friend and had written you a blank check, you would be acting on it. I don't mean to compare God's promises to a blank check (or to Bill Gates) but part of that is a good analogy.
I love the old English pastor J Sidlow Baxter's writings and sermons. he said,
"Most of us need to lift our prayer life from the tyranny of our moods."
His other quote on prayer is one of my favorites: "Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers." We are never so powerful and influential as when we are on our knees.
Lewis tells the story (I think in Letters to Malcolm) of a time when he planned to go to London for some business and planned to stop in at his barber's. Then the reason for going to London fell through but he kept sensing God telling him to go ahead to the barber's. Now Lewis never drove so this involved a taxi and expense, but he went ahead and made the trip to his barber. As he walked in, his barber, who was a Christian, said, "Oh, Jack (Lewis was called 'Jack' by friends) I was praying you would come in today." Lewis' comment was, "It awes me.'
Are you in awe of your prayer life and your God?
thank you for this! Enjoy your writing/blogs; yes, am awed at how this God of all Creation manages to restrain Himself in such a way for us 'wee dust particles' which He loves so much, to begin to receive the reality of who He really is.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to pray, and the idea of its difficulty confounds me. Yes, the tyranny of my moods affect me, but I know the power of prayer both intellectually and experientially. That alone should be enough, but it isn't.
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