When God speaks, it is usually brief and to the point. Read/scan the Bible from the perspective of really paying attention to the things God is saying. He is a man of few words. I mainly read the KJV, and I have heard some adapt the flowery KJV prayers, but in conversations with God--beginning in the Old Testament you get a pretty good feel of God's very different mode of conversation. I think the only time He got long winded was at the end of Job :)
"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell Me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone--while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'? Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken. Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this." Job 38
If we don't spend much time with the Lord in prayer and reading the Bible, we could misunderstand what He is trying to communicate. The Bible says the Lord knows what our needs are even before we ask, yet he wants us to have communion with Him--to ask expecting to receive His mercy, grace and love in our situation. If we ask with hearts and attitudes of trust and thanksgiving, it really only takes a few words to ask Him to intervene in a given situation.
Too often we tell God how to answer our prayers instead of letting the God who knows best, be God. We tend to rely on ourselves, or man, to meet our needs, and when it doesn't seem to be working--we go to God to have him fix everything our way. How sad that we don't go to Him first--thanking Him for being the loving Lord of our lives who meets our needs each day, and worshipping Him for what He does in and through us--as well as His provision for us and our loved ones. A totally different attitude toward prayer.
Read the Psalms. David and others did some venting, even complaining to God for their hardships. But the theme of praise, thanksgiving and trust underlies every Psalm. The writers are human just like ourselves, yet they chose to trust the faithfulness of the God who is Almighty to save, deliver and redeem them from every destruction. The God who sees all the details of our lives knows our needs and is big enough to meet them all.
Do we trust Him? Do we really believe He is loving and faithful? It is His faithfulness that is required to meet our every need. Our faith may fail, but His cannot. We can trust Him, and He longs to hear us tell Him we do. It releases His Hand to accomplish His purposes in our lives. Prayer is not really about us, but about Him. He desires to have intimate relationship with you, prayer is one of the vehicles He uses to accomplish this. Along with reading His Word and living a life style of Worship, we pray in order to commune in a two-way conversation with the Loving God of the Universe.
Copyright © 2007 by Ruth Mayfield All rights reserved. These articles may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, by including this notice.
