The Picture of Prayer
Good Morning Friends,
Things appear to be in a bit of disarray in Washington today as the partial government shutdown looks like it might be expanded. Here we are as a country sorting out what we want vs. what we need. Friends, it is a time for prayer and too few know what it means.
Of all the spiritual disciplines the one most neglected is our daily communication with God. We fellowship one with another. We study the Bible. We even gather together in service and worship and praise in song, but our society and culture seem to have forgotten The Picture of Prayer.
Scripture: Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
Mark 6:31 (NIV)
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Romans 12:1-2 (MSG)
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV)
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14 (ESV)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)
The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
Isaiah 50:4 (NIV)
No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NRSV)
While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.
Acts 12:5 (NRSV)
Message: Where are you when you pray? Is it a secluded place? Is it around a Chickee Hut? Is it in a pew in church? Is it around a table? Now where are you in your mind’s eye when you pray? Is it at the throne of God? Is it by a bedside where you may have first learned about prayer? So, so many questions. But one more now. Where are your hands when you pray? Look at them now. Place them on your face. Now clasp them loosely. Intertwine the fingers. Open them. Clench them. Rub them gentle together. Now just touch the fingertips as you lift them up to God palm up. They form a picture of the nature of our prayer before a word is spoken. Of course there is not just one picture of prayer. God relates to us so individually even as we lay on hands joined in a circle, praying one for another. So what is your picture of prayer? I hope you do not have just one. There are hundreds of ways to pray, maybe thousands, millions, billions….It is time to pray for these people in Washington that their actions be guide by God. It is time to pray for all those kids in college who are going to inherit all this. It is time for the church to step up and do what it was called to do. Know that you are the picture of prayer when you give to those willing to stand in the gap of change.
Pray we learn to pray. Pray we ask God to empower us to be healthy in mind body and spirit. Pray we have eyes to see like Jesus. Pray we get our direction from God. Pray for endurance and stamina. Pray we not be tempted. Pray we recognize God’s voice. Pray we give all our anxious thoughts to God and rest in the peace and purpose we find in prayer. Pray we know we are in the Hands of our Creator when we pray. Pray we take time to pray for others and maybe especially for the kids in college today who are going to inherit all this.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 