prayer – J3Khai.fun

I can think of 3 reasons that motivate me to pray.

One reason is the relationship. Prayer, in my simple understanding, is talking to God. You can talk; you can pray. You can think, you can pray. God speaks to us through the Word, and we speak to Him in prayer. It is a relationship based on the sacrifice of His Son Jesus that adopts us into His family as beloved children. When we get performance focused, we drop the relationship because of the guilt we carry of an “inadequate” life.

A second reason is praise. We are instructed, “In everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” When we are focused on self, life tends to revolve around us. Our pains, our joys, our problems, our glory, etc. When we are focused on Him, it lifts our attention and our hearts into His presence.

A third reason is people. Paul was fanatical in his praying for people. We unfortunately focus on his ministry and short him on his praying. “I do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers.” “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” We don’t tend to value prayer for people because we usually don’t see God doing what we asked Him to do. That doesn’t mean that the prayer is not valuable, critical.

There is a verse in Psalms that I like by David, “Evening and morning and at noon I will complain, and murmur and He will hear my voice.” We are always invited to pour out our hearts before Him and it doesn’t need to be pretty.  God is the one entity in the universe who completely understands us, completely loves us, and is delighted to fellowship with us. He will never fail to do what is good in our lives (although we get into an argument about what is good). I know what I like, He knows what is good.

Your brother,

David C.

Rejoice always, talk with God continually, and thank him for everything.

This is a letter from Dave Coffield, shared with you with his permission.

“Several of us are studying our way through 1 Thessalonians, and I am struck by 5:16,17,18. ‘Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.‘ One of the guys in the study, Russ, suggested that all 3 verses represent God’s will for us. I had never considered that before, and I am grateful for his input.

‘Rejoice always.’ It doesn’t say to be happy always. Rejoice is a choice I make with my will to lift my heart to God in gratefulness regardless of the circumstances. It is our ability to rejoice in hard and unpleasant circumstances that bear testimony to a watching world to the reality of God and our faith. It is a compass heading. I don’t always do a good job of it.

‘Pray without ceasing.’ We can pray without ceasing because our God is always present with us. We are always in communication; the line is always open.

Our sin doesn’t separate us from God. In the early days I believed and taught that. However, all of our sins have been forgiven on Calvary, past, present, and future. All of them. We don’t have to connect with God or regard Him, but He lives inside of us. We carry Him around with us and Psalm 139 says He has intimate knowledge of us. Every word, every thought, every deed.

So, the Lord and I talk all day long. He is a constant companion, an ardent listener and deeply loving of us. Incredible. There is nothing that we can’t share with Him, nothing that He doesn’t know, and nothing that He doesn’t care about. Incredible. How lonely must be the life of an unbeliever!

‘In everything give thanks.’ We don’t have to feel thankful. We don’t have to see the event as ‘good.’ We can give thanks because our Father is absolutely sovereign over this world and its smallest events. So, what we see as an accident, an intrusion, a mistake, is all from the hand of our sovereign Father to accomplish His purposes. We can give thanks because our Father loves us with a matchless, wonderful, profound love.

So, this is God’s will for us. May our lives move in this direction.”