If you look at the world today, there are hundreds of countries and each one has a ruler. The rulers are chosen in a variety of ways: succession, election, overthrow of a previous government, etc. The rulers are liked\disliked, popular\unpopular. And because of various concerns (security, work efficiency, safety) access to these rulers is limited. Not just anyone can walk into their office or living quarters and “get in their faces.”
However, if you give your allegiance to Jesus, you have complete, total access to the Supreme creator and Ruler of the Universe – 24 x 7 x 365. You can discuss anyone and anything with him. You can vent. You can petition. You can blather total foolishness. And you are welcome again and again and again.
- God’s Perspective
If we were merely citizens of God’s kingdom, we might not get access to the Supreme Ruler, just like the citizens of any other country. But he has adopted us into his family. We are now his children.
Fathers are different, of course. They have different amounts of availability. Some have lots; some have little. No human being can be totally available to another. Some things require privacy and being alone.
However, the Father of all has given us his immanence. He is omnipresent. He is available to each one of us, whenever we need him, wherever we need him. (Maybe he can be private and available at the same time.) He gives each of us 100%, focused attention all at the same time. This is a privileged of son-ship. It is we who are not paying attention.
- Living My Life
Prayer ought to be big. BIG!! Prayer is the thing we use to communicate with God.
- It can be long or short.
- It can be formal or informal.
- It can be flowery or plain.
- It ought to be open and honest.
- It ought to express your heart at its deepest level.
- It ought to be an instrument that develops your relationship with the Father.
- It ought to be an outflowing of love for others.
- It ought to go BIG for God, his kingdom and his mission.
Prayer is one way (p[perhaps not the only way) of focusing our hearts on the Father. So, prayer opens a conduit between our hearts and the Father’s heart. It is by this conduit that the Father pours his love and grace into our hearts. It is that love and grace that is the main component that really changes our hearts.
I don’t know if we have to be in receiving mode to benefit, or can God somehow do it in background mode. I do know that the most benefit happens when we are giving our attention to what God is doing and cooperate with it.
Prayer is also our invitation to god to work in our circumstances. Unlike Satan, who works wherever and whenever he wants, God respects our boundaries and works by invitation. We need to invites him into our lives, into our circumstances, into our problems and into our celebrations. We need to invite him into the US, Canada, China, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa (and anywhere else we think of.) It is God’s love in any situation that will bring healing and wholeness.
It is God’s availability and our open access to him that sets the environment and allows for the overcoming of evil and the prevailing of good.
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