Prayer

What comes to your mind when you think of prayer?

·         A time to ask for all the things you need in life

·         A time to communicate to your heavenly Father

·         A time to ask for forgiveness and give thanks for the blessings in your life

I believe prayer incorporates all of these, but we must be careful to have the right balance of them. John Piper in his book Desiring God asks "So how is God glorified by prayer? Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that he will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy, and exalts God as wealthy."

When our prayers become centered around us and only what we want we are on the verge of idolatry. On Sunday mornings we have been going through the book of Acts. This past Sunday Pastor Doug preached about prayer and he had a very convicting question. "How often do we pray and not expect God to do anything?"

 What does this show about our trust in our Savior when we pray and we don't expect anything to happen? What about all those times when we merely do it out of habit?  I know this, God loves to answer prayer. However, when we are just praying because that is what Christians are supposed to do and we are not fully engaging ourselves we need to look at our heart.

 Francis Chan writes, "I look deeply at myself. What's my motivation? Is it selfish? I look at my own personal holiness, ... at my faith. Is there doubt in me?" I am sure that we have all experienced feelings of doubt and confusion when our prayers seem to go unanswered, when things from our perspective would be better if our prayers were answered. Even when we don't understand our Father is working all things together for good. Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  We are not able to fully comprehend how God works, but God is molding and shaping us into His image.

Pray and believe that God is going to answer and do more than you can even image.

Matthew 7:11 "How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him."