Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
1 John 5: 14 - 15 NKJV
Prayer should be an easy thing for the believer. Think about it, when we need guidance or provision, we are told that if we simply come to the Father that He will fulfill our requests. Sounds simple, right? Yeah, until we began to put more thought into prayer than we need to. We fear that our actions will somehow anger God and that He won't oblige us. We wonder if we have done enough to please Him. If there is one thing about our prayers to the Father it is this, they are more of a conversation than a vocation. That is, we work way too hard in our attempts to figure out our prayers. Did Jesus ever need to wonder if the Father was displeased? Did He ever need to worry if He was doing enough for Him? No. Yet, we're told that Jesus often retired to a private place to pray...to have a conversation with the Father. Isn't this the way we should be looking at prayer? Well, it is if we have our understanding straight about who we are in Christ. For without this realization we are simply like most Christians...leaving requests with a God we see not as a intimate part of our life but as a giver of rewards. The apostle Paul introduces us to the realization of Christ in us in Galatians {Galatians 2:20}. Paul realized that his old life was gone and that he had began a new life in Christ {Galatians 1:15-16}. Notice that Paul is careful to point out that it is God who revealed Christ in him. This was not Paul somehow being rewarded for good behavior. Remember, it was Saul who persecuted the early church {Acts 8:1-3}. There is absolutely nothing with God that resembles a popularity contest. Do you think that the prayers offered up by the religious leader Saul were any different from those of Paul? I believe they most certainly were. For Saul prayed to the idea of a God while Paul prayed to a God whom he shared a personal connection with.
Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 'I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Luke 18: 9 - 14 NKJV
As I write this page, I'm in the middle of a health event which struck me this week. Yes, I've indeed had my conversations with Jesus concerning what it is I am going through. Yet something struck me early this morning as I was talking with the Father. The message? 'Look at all which I have provided you.' Indeed, I have health insurance for those times I need it. Somewhere along the way I got lost in thinking that my current situation was simply too big for the Father to handle. This is the blind side of prayer. Sometimes we lose sight of all which He has provided. I get it. Unfortunately, as humans, when we're faced with situations such as this we need to resist that urge to somehow fix things ourselves. This is less about taking care of ourselves and more about the false belief that we are somehow separated from God. If God cannot help me then I need to do it myself? Good luck with that. I believe that the Father delights not only in that personal relationship with His children, but also in providing for us as well. Like I said, prayer should definitely be a easy thing for the believer. There is no more personal conversation that with Christ Jesus who is in us.
Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear.
Hebrews 5: 7 NKJV
~Scott~
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