Prayer…communicating with God
by Tim Lamb
I’m not sure God really needs to hear us speak. Possibly we are all
far more eloquent at the level of a heart cry than by the time we put
it into words. As many men have stated, prayer is what we do in our
time…but God knows out heart all the time.
I think we often strive for such a regiment of prayer that it loses
its spontaneity. Our prayers become planned and constructed rather
than unleashed into the bosom of God. Our prayers should be a
spiritual extension of our physical form where we are able to throw
our arms around a loving Father, Friend, and Lord to confess what no
one else need hear and offer praise that no one else deserves. With
all intimacy and innocence and purity, like a babe in arms we cry and
coo and cuddle; and yet with a oneness that makes all revelation as
safe as the heart being honest with the mind and soul.
Do you know that relationship? Can you come before the throne with
confidence?
Jesus said of praying that no one else need hear our prayers. Yet the
first thing we want to do with a child or new Christian is put words
in their mouths to pray; as though the words which we front them are
more pleasing to God than the simple, heartfelt, ramblings of one who
is still finding their voice.
The more they learn about Jesus the more they will understand “what a
friend we have in Jesus”, whom they are talking to.
Last I knew “Please” and “Thank you” and “I’m sorry” went a long way
in relationship restoration. It’s not that difficult. The day I
recount as the beginning of my life in Christ, to His service, my
prayer was simply a declaration of my desire - one line: “Lord, I want
to serve you!”. His answer was acceptance of the sort that makes me
able to understand what it means to have His Spirit bear witness to my
spirit. (Romans 8:14,16)
The Lord’s Model Prayer as given in Matthew chapter six is a reminder
of simplicity in approaching the Creator but I doubt it was intended
to be repeated verbatim. Many Christians do not even know the
implications of praying “…Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…” and so
should be simply praying their heart – what they do know and feel.
Even the shortest, simplest, prayer may be an acorn with an oak ready
to break loose.
In the sermons of Joseph Parker which I find in the volumes titled
“Studies in Texts”, this profound observation caught my eye:
“Who does not like to know what a child has said in prayer? To hear
the sweet words is like hearing God’s answer to them; and if the
child’s words be feeble, like young birds that cannot yet fly, their
very feebleness has a strange might of its own which makes the heart
quiver and brings tears to the eyes.”
This is what happens when we let the child pray their heart and the
newly converted is free to cry.
Many have heard me stutter and stammer through a prayer scarcely able
to string coherent words together. For me those words that do come to
the surface are like flecks of gold mined from the depths of my soul.
I have come to the conclusion that if I were eloquent in prayer I
would be offering up prayers in front of all who would listen, and be
quite proud of the accomplishment. As it is I offer up my passion
with sweat and trembling and even fear that my words should be worthy
of the one who I hoped to hear them.
How needed are our prayers? A point that should be made is that the
love with which “…God so loved the world…” is Agape. To Agape is to
give what is needed to the recipient of the passion. To know the
unconditional Agape is to remove even the condition of “want” from the
act of giving. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only
Begotten Son”. The world did not ask for the atonement, and for the
most part does not comprehend its meaning and implications to this
day. Most people ask for everything BUT the Son. But God gave
because it was right to give and exactly what a fallen world needed.
So in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus promises
(Matthew 7:7-12) all who ask will receive, seekers will find, and
those who knock will find an open door, it is not that God is giving
what is desired but what is needed. If you “Seek first His Kingdom
and His righteousness…” (Matthew 7:33), faith will tell you, you will
receive exactly what you desire and need - His will in accordance with
His righteousness.
It is amazing that each of us are able to come to Christ in prayer
within the narrow purpose of our own heart and mind. Even more
miraculous is that He reaches back and we know Him through the same
porthole.
A loving Father knows how to give good things to His children, but the
children do not always know how to ask for good things. …such are,
too often, the prayers of man.
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