How are you praying?

So God gave us prayer for many reasons. To thank Him, to ask of Him, but mainly just to talk to Him. He wants to know our hearts. He wants to know what's going on. Can He simply read our minds and be done with us? Sure He can, but He wants us to talk to Him. If I could read my wife's thoughts, it might be kind of cool for a little while, but I will lose the interaction that forms an important part of our relationship. If I am just sitting there absorbing her thoughts it is just a one-way form of communication. She gets nothing in return. This is how it is with God. He wants to interact with us, and in that interaction miracles happen. That is where we know that we are not alone. That is where we know Christ is alive. That is where we know that we are not living by blind faith. This ultimately is the confirmation of our faith.

But maybe you pray all the time and you feel like you don't get a response. Maybe you are praying with selfish motives. Maybe it is all about you. What if someone you loved was always asking you for things and not once asking how you are doing or what they could do for you? That is what is called a high maintenance friend. Well that is true of a lot of Christ followers. They are high maintenance Christians. God wants to be your friend where the relationship is a two way street. He wants you to come to Him for things, but He also wants to come to you for things. He wants to know that you are willing to follow where He leads. When asking for things, it needs to be in line with His Kingdom and His will.

So next time that you offer up a prayer to God, think about how you are asking it and how would you feel if you were on the receiving end. This is not to say that you can't just cry out to Him when you need Him. Like any good friend He will be there for you to listen and care. He loves you and wants you to know that. I think that He just wants to have a relationship with you like any other person. He is not as distant as we make Him. He is as close as we let Him. So I guess it is kind of like the Golden Rule: Treat God like you would want to be treated. Talk to Him and he will talk to you!!!

Is the Law your God?

In 1 Timothy 1, Paul is writing to Timothy in Ephesus. The Ephesian church was becoming a place where people were getting too hung up on false doctrine and following the law to the tee rather then lifting each other up in love. Paul addresses this especially in regards to the "fantasy stories" and "fanciful family trees that digress into silliness". This of course is referring to the church getting caught up in the twisting of the Word and the useless genealogies that caused more division than unity. The letter then transitions to what needs to be focused on, taught, and lived. And that is love. So if you take a step back here, there is a battle between the doctrine, or law, of the Ephesian church and the loving nature of Christ.

I never really thought about it before, but sometimes I get too worried about following the "law" so perfectly that I always fall short. Instead of getting hung up on this I need to have love be the purpose. God is love, a message that the apostle John used as a theme in all of his writings. Now I am not saying that the law needs to be ignored but rather used as a guideline for those already seeking the Lord. Paul goes onto say that it is designed for those that are not yet living for Christ. For us that claim to follow Christ, we need to be more concerned with our personal relationships with Him than making sure that we stay with in the lines. It is the personal versus the impersonal. Jesus wants to know us because of how much we love Him, not because how well we keep the rules. I was listening to a sermon recently on this and how impossible it is to keep the law. There is no way on earth that we as humans can keep all the rules set before us. That is why we ALWAYS fall short, and for some people this is what keeps them down. They are looking more to the law then they are to the Lord. The law was given to us to help us not rule us. The law, in a sense, is more like road signs pointing us in the right direction. Once we have arrived it is on us to maintain the relationship so that we stay there, but if we get "lost" again we need to use the road signs to get us back there.

So instead of worshipping the thing that points us to the Lord, we need to worship Lord and us utilize the law to help us get there and remain there. So when it comes down to it, who or what is your God? If it is the law are you a happy Christ follower or a miserable failure? I would guess the latter. Take a step back and adjust what leads you. May it be the Lord in heaven who loves you and cares for you. May He be your God.