http://bible.com/116/mat.6.7-8.nlt
When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
http://bible.com/116/1jn.1.8-10.nlt
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
Observation
Why am I praying? Am I praying because I think that I know what I need and I’m telling God what I need?
Really?
Really?
Do I even hear what I am saying if that is my perspective?
Who have I made the master and who is the servant in the mental gymnastics of that scenario?
He knows what we need. We are the ones that need to be changed and moved by our prayer. Not God.
We are the ones that need to examine our own lives and find what disease and sin needs to be cut out and cast away and confessed and repented and forgiven. We are the ones that need to seek Him first as our master, Lord and Savior, giving, Him authority over our lives.
Prayer.
How often do I just like listening to the sound of my own voice, how rarely does my mind truly become quiet and humble before the Lord.
Isn’t that supposed to be the point of prayer? To bring us humbly on our knees to the feet of the master? To seek His very presence?
How often do I instead find myself hurried and settle for thinking instead of praying?
Oh, if it were my works, if it were my closeness or distance from the Lord’s will, I know what my own works are earning me – a debt of falling short of His glory daily. But for grace –
Yes, that grace that touches even me,
That sets the sinner free,
That clothes me, for one,
With thehope available for everyone,
In the righteousness of the One.
This cup.
Is it for you to drink, friend?
This cross.
Is it for you to bear, friend?
Did He call you to let you die in a life of lukewarm religious practice, friend? Or did He call you to follow Him?
Are you making disciples of the nations?
Are you equipping yourself for battle?
Are you praying honestly and transparently to God, not so that He can see the state of your heart, but so that YOU can see and be humbled?
Soften our hearts, Lord.
Remind us of our weakness and of your strength.
Lead us to repentance.
Call to Action
Pray with purpose.
Pray with focus.
Pray to receive wisdom and understanding.
Pray for discernment and for vision to see what needs to be changed in our own lives that is not glorifying God.
Pray.
Don’t just talk, don’t just think.
Pray.
Repent.
Prayer without repentance is remaining a dead liar, seeking a false sense of self confidence in religious practice, while ignoring the fact that our only hope is in believing in Jesus Christ.
Believing
That isn’t a one time prayer.
Believing is ongoing.
Believing is Christ alive in us.
Believing is change, it is seen in the love growing in our lives and spilling out onto the world around us.
So do you believe, friend?
Have you grasped hold of the fringe of His robe and been healed of your uncleanness?
Have you walked with Him and talked with Him, friend?
Have you listened?
This message is for me above all. If you think that I have this nailed or that I am teaching, you couldn’t be further from the truth. You see, I’m the student. I’m not the master. I sit at His feet, I carry the message – if I’m patient and humble enough to listen to Him.
You too carry a message, friend. Let your light shine brightly today.
Harold J. Ballinger 