Pray!

"Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends." Rev. 3:20 (NLT)

It’s amazing, the way God works.

This has been a particularly hectic summer. I don’t know why, not that many things are different from last summer. Regardless, I have felt busier and more under the pressure of time than I did last year. When things get like this, one of the things that seems the first to suffer is my prayer life. I have come to realize in recent days that, as I have many times in the past, that my prayer times have become more of a one-sided ritual than the two-sided conversation that they should be.

First, the Lord convicted me with this realization over the last couple of days. Then, this morning’s Bible reading was Revelation three. As I read that twentieth verse, quoted above, the promise of Christ to the believers at the lukewarm church at Laodicea, I realized that I also had not recently shared that meal with Him as friend to Friend.

And so I did, and soon, I was directed to the recently delivered, latest issue of "Pray!" magazine. I was quickly led to the editorial, "No More Monologues", in which Editor, Cynthia Bezek shared about how she discovered the two-sided nature of prayer, and then previewed the article, "Two-Way Is Better than One", an interview with author John Eldredge about his new book, "Walking With God", which is about just this very thing.

Then, my boss, Brandon called and said that I didn’t need to work today (on days when the park is closed, we just do odd jobs). The stage was now set. The Lord had me right where He wanted me.

I first "discovered" conversational prayer as a freshman in college. I talk some about this in my book, and I will not elaborate on it here. The whole idea of prayer as being a two-way conversation with God, rather than a monologue is a subject that has always been near and dear to my heart.

A scripture that came up in both the articles mentioned above was John 10:27;

"my sheep hear my voice, and know me . . ."

I discuss in "Going Forth in The Name" as do both these articles, that hearing the voice of God in your heart is a learned skill that needs to be practiced in order for it to rise above the subjective. It is often the fear and mistrust of this subjectivism that keeps many from learning this skill. Yet, it is a skill that Jesus wants us to learn and continue to practice in order for us to have the kind of intimacy with Him that both we and He desire.

Eldredge hit another nail on the head when he said that one of the reasons that many of us have overlooked two-way prayer is:

". . . they haven’t been taught it’s available. The popular belief is that God has spoken to us in the Bible and the conversation is over. But the irony is, this is not what the Bible says."

As I said, I discovered conversational prayer a long time ago, and I should know better by now. But from time to time, I stray from the path that Christ wants me to walk with Him. This is when I run into trouble.

So I had a long talk with the Lord this morning; a good, intimate, two-way talk. I learned a lot. I got closer to Him. It was a good time.

I recommend to you the latest issue of "Pray!" It has these two articles, mentioned above, as well as a series of articles about praying for politicians and leaders, especially when you don’t agree with them. You can get a copy at most Family Christian Stores, and probably other Christian book stores, or at the magazine’s website: www.praymag.com

Don’t forget to take time to listen when you pray, and thanks for sharing this moment with me today.