Saturday, January 7, 2012

Small Little Prayers

Prayer is about communication with God.  In another real sense, prayer is about asking God for His provision and providence in our lives.  To be sure, God is not a divine vending machine that gives out treats of wealth and prosperity at the input of prayers of request.  Rather, the Lord desires for us to live in a perpetual communion with Him in right relationship.  Prayer is an extension of this right relationship and should be thought of as such.

The biblical account is both unified and clear: God wants us to look to Him to provide every need and want (Matt. 5:44-45; 7:8; 21:22; John 15:7; 16:24; Eph. 6:18).  The Word says that we should be going to Him constantly for His providence and provision, as He delights in meeting each of our needs and desires.  The Lord wants us to come to Him for everything.

We should not ever feel that we are asking God too much or too often; He's God, He can more than handle any and all of our requests.  The Lord is capable of handling each and every one of our requests, from the simple to the absurd.   He's not tallying up what we've asked for or keeping a scorecard, marking down what we've asked over what He's given.  God is most interested in a relationship with us. 

The Lord is gracious and giving, but He desires our worship and praise first.  When we are deferent and sincere in our exaltation and adoration of Him, we will naturally seek for all of our wants and needs to be met in Him.  This is a beautiful thing but it is not without practice or method.

Praying for providence is about practicing the presence of God.  This practice is about the small prayers.  Far too often people seem to only come to God in prayer over the big stuff: employment, death, divorce, addiction, etc.  Instead, we should make a habit of coming to the Lord in prayer constantly for the littlest of prayers.  When we pray, we are communicating with God, we are letting the Spirit work through us in relationship with the Holy Lord.  We should strive to live this out in a real, moment-by-moment way.


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