On Prayer

Last month we met with a small group of people discussing the topic of sharing our faith with others. It was a helpful class, especially interacting on struggles, mistakes, and what has been helpful. This area of our walk with the Lord, like so many others… is undergirded and really only possible through prayer. When a person comes to Christ, it’s first and foremost because the Holy Spirit is moving in their heart and mind to draw them, which reminds us to be praying to that end! As part of the Lords work, we also get to be part of that beautiful process as we sow seeds, water, and allow the Spirit of God to work through us in leading another person to the living water found in Jesus.

In preparing for that class I was reminded about what a wonderful and powerful thing prayer is. When our Lord said, "Apart from me you can do nothing", he wasn’t blowing smoke. It’s why we encourage one another in faithfulness and prayer. The apostle Paul said, "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful (Colossians 4:2)." Paul was often asking for prayer and modeling it in his prayer for others. He understood its place in the life of believers. There is literally book after book written on this mysterious, powerful, and beautiful topic, and, I believe, none of them exhausts the subject.

A couple weeks ago, I referenced Psalm 18:19 where David says of the Lord, "He rescued me because he delights in me." I can’t get that out of my head…. Does the Lord delight in me? I believe the answer is yes for any of us who trust in the person of Jesus. We are his, he’ll never let us go, we are chosen, loved, redeemed by his precious blood. Then another question pops into my head: if he delights in me, why wouldn’t I continually talk with him throughout my day? Good question. So when Paul tells us to "pray without ceasing", he means that we are to seek him at all times and go to him with all of our concerns, and let him know when we are feeling particularly blessed and joyous, or even down and angry. He is closer than a brother and he delights in us! And when Jesus reminds us to "cast our cares upon him" he’s simply reminding us of the intimate nature of prayer. He’s saying come to me, abide in me, seek my face, walk with me today because, well, he’s fond of us. Prayer. It matters. More than we know.

I leave you with the simple statement that our Lord “delights in us”… walk and talk with him today.