Pray?

The whole guilt thing about 'daily prayer' and 'daily quiet time', is an unnecessary burden too many of God's children carry. God fathered (freed) my out of that burden and guilt 3 years ago when he spoke to me that 'prayer' is not just the time you kneel next to your bed with your hands folded, eyes shut, and head bowed, it is a realization that He is present every moment of my life and He simply desires to talk with me, like friends on a park bench, or across the dinner table, or even on the bar stool next to me at the pub...It has truly disarmed satan's lies, like "Why bother? You haven't done it in weeks. What's the point? You'll never be a good Christian."

We are all trained by modern day religious institutions to set aside a time and place to have our "Quiet Time". If we are to be good Christians, that has to be something we do every day (along with the other thousands of rules and principals we need to obey and do, mind you). We are taught to do that, as if it is something separate from daily life. As if it is not part of life, like we have to step out of our daily life to do it. That if I was not able to check it off my daily task list I wasn't being a good Christian.

I used to think all the time about what I was going to pray when I had my time, and all the time I would be distracted just enough to never get around to that time. Days and weeks would go by before I would be ridden with guilt and finally kneel next to my bed, bow my head, close my eyes, and rattle off a bunch of apologies, requests, praises to some distant being. Then I found freedom from that ritual, God showed me that He simply desires to talk with me, like friends on a park bench, or across the dinner table, or even on the bar stool next to me at the pub. Now I pray all the time; in the shower, driving to work, while I wait for that server to reboot, on the john. I do not think about what to pray when I get around to doing it, I just pray, talk to that Father, right there in that moment, having a conversation with my Father. That is Prayer, that is Freedom, that is Life.

Rocco

A Father gives good things to His children...

With joyful anticipation, I move forward to accept the good that awaits me. Do I often wish that I could see just around the corner in my life and know what is ahead? If I could see for myself that good awaited me, I would not hesitate to move toward my future! If I ever do feel hesitant, I take a spiritual attitude check: I release any false ideas that God would ever punish me or cause me pain. (those are lies from satan) I accept that God's plan for me includes blessings that are more fulfilling than any view of the future I could possibly imagine. I know what is true: God's will for me is good and only good! I am renewed by my belief in a divine plan that brings me joy. Incredible blessings await me - blessings I have never before experienced or even imagined I could experience - and I move forward filled with anticipation.


"Surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you future with hope." Jeremiah 29:11

More On Glory...

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Looking for a Glory We Know We Were Meant to Have
12/10/2007

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The poet Yeats wrote,

If I make the lashes dark
And the eyes more bright
And the lips more scarlet,
Or ask if all be right
From mirror after mirror
No vanity’s displayed:
I’m looking for the face I had
Before the world was made.
(“Before the World Was Made” from the poem “A Woman Young and Old”)

Yes, that’s it. When we take a second glance in the mirror, when you pause to look again at a photograph, we are looking for a glory you know you were meant to have, if only because you know you long to have it. You remember faintly that you were once more than what you have become. Your story didn’t start with sin, and thank God, it does not end with sin. It ends with glory restored: “Those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30). And “in the meantime,” you have been transformed, and you are being transformed. You’ve been given a new heart. Now God is restoring your glory. He is bringing you fully alive. Because the glory of God is you fully alive.

“Well, then, if this is all true, why don’t I see it?” Precisely. Exactly. Now we are reaching my point. The fact that you do not see your good heart and your glory is only proof of how effective the assault has been. We don’t see ourselves clearly.

(Waking the Dead , 78–79)

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From The Ransomed Heart, by John Eldredge, reading 344
Ransomed Heart Ministries www.ransomedheart.com