Luke 11:1
It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray......."
I love this verse....
Jesus is praying...
Evidently the disciples have been watching Him....
Now these guys already knew about prayer,after all they were Jews who went to the temple to pray.
But there was something different about how Jesus prayed, and the results they saw after He prayed.
You see, when Jesus prayed, He was not simply filling the air with flowery words, as if to impress those around Him. He was carrying on a communication with His heavenly Father. He was also listening for what the Father had to communicate back to Him. In other words, Jesus was not going to approach His day in a helter skelter kind of attitude. A "lets-make-this-up-as-we-go" attitude that relied more on self than on hearing directly from God the Father. You want to know the funny part in all of this? Jesus expects us to operate in the same manner. Oh, I know!!!! We have a gazillion excuses as to why we can't. But those excuses fall by the wayside when we discover that communication from us to God is exactly what is on His heart.
If you are familiar with the Twelve Steps of A.A. then you know that prayer and listening is the heart of any recovery. Found in Step # 11, we see that this is the ongoing dynamic that fuels this new life that has been found in recovery.
Step #11 - We sought through prayer and mediation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Now, coupled with this incredible call to action, I want to share something with you.
Michelle Hicks, who is the music minister at Northside, put something in last Sunday's bulletin that is very much at the heart of what I am writing about. In fact when I read it, I I automatically thought about Step # 11.
"Prayer does not give you spiritual power. Prayer aligns your life with God so that He chooses to demonstrate His Power through you. The purpose of prayer is not to convince God to change your circumstances but to prepare you to be involved in God's activity. Prayer is designed to adjust you to God's will, not to adjust God to your will. If God has not responded to what you are praying, you may need to adjust your praying to align with God's agenda. Rather than focusing on what you would like to see happen, realize that God may be more concerned with what He wants to see happen in you."
Take this to heart and look at the your motives and intentions when you pray. After all the focus of our new life is to find God's will for us, as well as receive His Power to live it daily. Sounds like a good deal to me.
God on you..
mbb
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