I am thinking of you and our recent sermon series on prayer. Many churches engage their people in a prayer initiative at the first of the year with good reason. Prayer? Yes, we most certainly need it. We need prayer in our world, our nation, our state, our communities, our neighborhoods, our churches, our homes, our families…and in each of us. Prayer is the lifeline of our relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Without prayer, there is not much of a relationship with God. I am sure we all desire a closer relationship with the Lord, don’t we? And prayer is most certainly one of the ways in which we draw closer to Him.
Our very natural logical minds can easily fall into a transactional relationship with the Lord instead of a familial relationship. Instead of really learning about God as our Father, we often fall prey to condensing our relationship with Him to a checklist of events. And when we’ve done our checklist and God hasn’t responded the way we thought He would/should, we are disappointed. The following quote sheds some light on this quandary.
“We often spend more time approaching God as an employee instead of as a child.”
Think of this for a moment. Paul the apostle taught us that the Holy Spirit who lives within us bears witness within us that we are the children of God, joint-heirs with Jesus (Romans 8:16-17). So as a child of God, I approach Him as my Father, not my boss. He is certainly holy and worthy of my highest regard and esteem, but He is related to me, and I am related to Him. Have you ever really let that sink into your mind, heart, and soul?
And Jesus clearly taught that we are to conduct ourselves in God’s Kingdom as children (Matthew 18:1-5).
What does that mean for our prayer lives? Well, that changes our time with the Lord from sounding like a business meeting more to like a beautiful conversation with our Father in which we share our hearts with one another. We can relate to Him on that basis instead of a transactional basis.
What if we spent time considering Him as our Father when we begin the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father who is in heaven….” We are not talking to a mysterious Father somewhere in space, but we are talking to someone to Whom we are related. He is our Father. That really does result in prayer as a relationship versus prayer as a transactional conversation.
As we continue through the beginning months of this year, I challenge us all to build up our foundation of prayer by spending time with our Father, relating to Him as such. The same Holy Spirit that convinces us of our sonship is the same Holy Spirit that will assist us in relating to the Father in such a beautiful manner. You can ask Holy Spirit, and He will teach you. Jesus said that He came to do just that.
Let’s change our perspective of prayer from a checklist to our lifeline to our Father and watch what it does in our relationship with Him. I’m excited to hear how lives are transformed and changed because we see God as our Father, and we see ourselves as His children.
Be abundantly blessed…
-Pastor Paula
2-14-2023
