Prayer

In the time that I have been involved with ministry, I have heard many say that they do not know how to pray.  Prayer is diffficult for there are many different ways to pray, but I am persuaded that God hears us when we approach Him.  All prayer is a covenant response even if we do not know anything about God.  The desperate person who cries out, "If there be a God, help me!" is heard.  Prayer is a communication with God.  It can be a love communication, an asking or seeking or desperate cry, a desire to sit in His Presence, a time of comforting someone who needs to know someone is in contact with God for them, or a silent waiting in His Presence for guidance and understanding.  For me, the most difficult prayer is what I call, Public Prayer.  It is often a "politically correct" prayer for the occasion and not a connection to God and I do not want to do that.  In our society, prayer is something to criticize rather than to give agreement.  My husband has had people come up to him and ask for a "copy" of his prayer because it had touched their heart.  (Most of such prayers are written up beforehand.)

Prayer is very important because it is a covenant response.  Jesus often spent His nights in prayer, alone with His Father.  Paul said we should pray without ceasing.  We are exhorted to pray and not faint or grow weary.  James said we have not because we do not ask.  James 4:1-3 (J.B. Phillips New Testament)  But about the feuds and struggles that exist among you—where do you suppose they come from? Can’t you see that they arise from conflicting passions within yourselves? You crave for something and don’t get it, you are jealous and envious of what others have got and you don’t possess it yourselves. Consequently in your exasperated frustration you struggle and fight with one another. You don’t get what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And when you do ask he doesn’t give it to you, for you ask in quite the wrong spirit—you only want to satisfy your own desires. 

This is why covenant understanding is so important.  The basic reason for making a covenant is to protect and provide.  Both friends of covenant are protected by the structure of the covenant.  God is love.  Out of His great love He has provided all things for us to reach His goal of man in His image.  When we lose sight of the goal, we lose our connection and begin to set goals for ourselves.  Jesus walked in total submission to the Father's will.  He did not seek His own way but yielded Himself to do only what the Father was doing.  When we walk in that same submission to our Lord, we know peace and fulfillment.  We pray in the manner that the Spirit leads for that moment.  Because our submission to Him assures that connection, we pray without ceasing.  The stress around us does not break the connection, even when we feel the stress.  We know His love holds us.  This is the basic reason why prayer is so difficult.  When we do not have the realization of how great is His love and how complete and powerful is His love toward us, we strive to reach Him and persuade Him to hear us!

Where Do We Go From Here?

The Scriptures are full of references to God's command to "go" forward in obedience to His word.  God's people are not stagnant but obediently following as He leads.  I remember my father exhorting to never be content with your knowledge of, and your obedience to, God's Word, but always seek a deeper relationship to Him.  It is easy to see the leading of God when He led His people out of Egypt and brought them to the promised land.  A cloud leading the way would seem to be an easy way to follow God.  But He led them many times to places that tested them, and there, they complained.  But God has a "finish line", a goal to be reached.  I want to point out two areas of completion that we need to have in our focus.  One is for His people as a whole and one is for each of us as individuals.  Each is a cell in His Body, but a cell that is "renegade" or unhealthy, is cause for sickness in the body.  The example of Achan's sin at Jericho that caused a halt in the victorious progression of taking the city of Ai, is a lesson for us today.  One group, allowing the coveting of success with the world an excuse for disobeying God's Word, can cause a downward slide to compromise with our human nature and no longer strive to bring it to the cross.  God's blessing is no longer with us to victoriously reveal God's power.
There are two verses that speak to us to "go" forward to the goal God has set.  Hebrews 6:1-3 speaks to the church to press forward to the maturity of total restoration and beyond to resurrection power.  John speaks to each individual in I John 2:5-6 and reveals God's purpose for each of us to walk as Jesus did as a man in God's image.  This perfection is not for some far off time, but now.  Jesus walked connected to the Father and has opened the door for us to walk connected to Him.  We can be connected to the Father through Jesus.  We can do the works He did and go on to greater works as the Father reveals.
Becoming one with Jesus Christ in a relationship that is like His relationship to the Father, is the beginning of our progress to becoming like Him.  When our spirit is born anew, a door is opened to us.  The opportunity of becoming like Jesus is ours.  Unfortunately, many are led down the path of "religious obedience" to man's idea of being acceptable to their church.  Anger, rebellion, hate, unforgiveness, judging and criticizing, being unmerciful, pride and gossip are human expressions still allowed if "dressed up" as religious expression.  The emphasis on the ritual and outward appearance do not change the inner man.
Jesus said "take up your cross and follow Me."  The cross is the means of death.  Our human nature must die and the anointed Christ nature become ours.  When Jesus said you are the light of the world, He did not mean our ritual or church membership.  Only if Jesus, The Light, shines in us are we the light.  When the world sees the bickering, hateful expressions, unforgiveness, criticism and pride, they are not drawn to you.  Only when they see God's love and mercy shining, and forgiving arms reaching out, are they drawn to Him in you.  When a whole group of people express the love of God and His forgiveness in their daily lives and in every situation, are others drawn to that group.
The early Church were witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.  They lived His victorious Life and were witnesses of the Love and Power of God.  Their "church" was not designed to draw people to their place of worship by energetic programs, designer buildings, and a way of life that was acceptable to the world around them.  They offered the New Birth of their spirit, a sure way to martyrdom, and union with God for eternity.  They did not dress up the sacrifice or the cost.  God is enough.