Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:44 — 3.5MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | More Subscribe Options
In the Old Testament, we find that God is in regular conversation with His people. Did you know that conversational prayer entailed the events of the day and seeking God’s will for the future? In these conversations with the Creator, we find the believers seeking to unite His will and the will of the nation with God’s will; God’s people tuned into Him, listening for His direction.
Could you imagine what our country would be like if we were doing that? God’s heart is for us to talk to Him and there are different ways to do that.
There are different ways to pray. I believe that the first step is recognizing our weakness and inability to make anything happen. And the next step is to cry out to the One who is so big that Scripture says He puts His feet on the earth as if it was a footstool. After that, the next step is to enter the gates heaven with thanksgiving and enter His courts with praise, meaning we approach God with a mind and heart that is positioned in humility.
I love Oswald Chambers’ daily devotionals My Utmost for His Highest; it has been a teaching tool for me for years. On the devotional pages for March 30th, he writes, “The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard toward God is because we only have a sentimental interest in prayer.”
It sounds right that we say we pray: we read books on prayer that tell us that prayer is beneficial, that our minds are quieted, and our souls are uplifted when we pray. But Isaiah implies that God is amazed at such thoughts of prayer.
I think it’s appropriate to do something that I normally don’t do, and that is to end in a prayer with you. So, if you have a moment, just bow your head and let’s ask the Lord to help us.
Lord, help me to be patient as I learn to pray. Help me to learn more about Your grace as I wait on You. Lord, may it be in prayer that I gain a deeper understanding of Your character, and the holiness required to see You, and what heaven itself might look like. Who can ascend to Your holy hill?
Your Word says that the one whose walk is blameless, and does what is right, will ascend. It is the one who speaks truth from her heart and has no slander on her tongue.
Oh, Lord, make me holy, even as You are holy.