Speaking with the one who created us, who also redeemed us, saved us, and guides us if we let him, that builds our relationship: me with Him and He with me.
That speaking has many sides – we talked about worship, praise and thanksgiving on one side, and supplication, petitioning and intercession on another side. That’s structure and good to have mentioned, but I think it is best to let prayer just flow and let God lead and nudge us – He is patient and doesn’t rush from one thing to another, unless we need that I suppose.
Prayer can become/already is one of the most private and intimate things in your life. Just you and your saviour, friend, creator, promotor, coach, shepherd, husband, redeemer, mentor, judge, advocate, career planner, father, teacher, .. that list goes on. It can also become one of the most vulnerable and powerful public displays of your life. You’ll hear someone’s public prayer and will know their roots – or others will hear your public prayer and know about yours.
During DTS we talked about and practiced intercessory prayer. A lot. One of the main reasons is that all things start with prayer. Jesus showed that, and like Him we want to be in alignment with what the Father wills and the Holy Spirit shares. You may remember checking so many bible verses about this why… but truth is that you need to experience that for yourself so you gain depth and it takes root in you. Sometimes the desire to pray is not in my heart as much as I would like, but I for sure can nurture the conviction in my mind (hence my daily calendar reminder). So our reasons for praying may vary from day to day, but keep it flowing.
Recently I’ve come to the re-realisation that God is building my trust. I’ve sung and proclaimed so many times that He’s faithful and trustworthy. And I would like to talk about these two things a bit as they seem to be understood as synonyms so often.
It seems there sometimes is a veil over certain “christianese” terms that we grew up with and have heard so many times that the meaning is hidden. Now it could be I’m missing some of the finer details that I would have seen if I understood greek, but when I read that God is faithful – you know, Philippians 1:6 – then I can understand that He is full of faith.. That brings a smile to my face: God has faith in me finishing this race. He has faith in me becoming what He originally designed me to be.
And that leads me to the issue where His faithfulness and my prayer leads to: building trust.
I hope and believe that we can look through the lense of faith so that we see the things we have experienced to be evidence of His trustworthyness. Because He first did .. fill in your experience here .., you now can believe beyond that.
I’ve had this song on my mind for some days now (“My redeemer lives”):
and when Nicole sings “I talked to Him this morning”, my spirit leaps in me. It is as if I stopped my life for a second, took my pulse, and realized: I can trust God.
I already knew this, but now I know this more.
I know it says so, and I believe the bible to be truth, but I cannot take that just on another’s authority: I need to own this.
So. During DTS we talked about and practiced intercessory prayer a lot. That needs to go hand in hand with us trusting Him, and knowing (that we know that we know) that He wants to do greater things today than He did yesterday. Personally I think one of the absolute greatest miracles is that He is changing me, one prayer at the time. Hanging out with Him changes me.
So my prayer (dad-pun, indeed) is that you understand on a deeper level that He changes you just by you hanging out with Him.
Keep it flowing.
Now that it has been some time since your DTS, I have three things:
1. I would like to talk with you about *your* experience with prayer,
2. If you want, I can ask God about His thoughts for you and what He wants me to share with you,
3. If you are up for it, I have something where I would like you to ask God about my future.
Let me know.
Love and respect from Norway.
Oh PS: If you I have left any issues or questions unresolved, let me know. I usually need some help with that heh.