Focus: Prayer (7/7)
Day: 15/95
Pathway summary: Being faith-filled, fervent, continual, and heartfelt in my expressions, petitions, and supplications to God.
Justification: (2 Timothy 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Matthew 6:5-13; Mark 9:23)
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Setup:
What is "just enough" prayer? What is the impact of praying as frequently as is feasible?
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Prep:
I recognized, of the studies in this journey so far, that compared to studying the bible, prayer (for me) is a much more difficult to thing to do regularly. Every post for this focus section has been late - so definitely something to work on.
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Execution:
I started with prayer and asked for guidance - recognizing I need Him to pray properly ... and also to complete this arc addressing the same.
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Day 15 Conclusions / Thoughts
The whole "just enough" is always a trap - much like any earnest relationship anyone is ever in, choosing to be guided by a "tit-for-tat" (or zero-sum) perspective will always falter in the end - this is because life is messy and we're talking about relationships between real people.
In other words, if you DO have a zero-sum perspective in a non-business relationship that is based on presumption of intimacy, you're probably not trying hard enough.
Flipping it, however, bears massive amounts of fruit. If you, instead, function from the perspective that you haven't prayed enough (and choose/fight to not be motivated by fear of this fact), you will err nicely on the side of sufficiency - which is to say, actually live out the "pray without ceasing."
And that's my take-away for prayer. It is a perpetual font of opportunity to connect with God, it provides a tool to work through literally any dilemma, a means of productively investing in those people and enterprises you care about, and provides an earnest way to connect with the body of Christ in a discrete and intimate way.
My caution to you is to not take it for granted.
And prayer is so very, very easy to take for granted. In fact, of the twelve core foci of the core values, it is the most easy to take for granted - because it requires no travel, no material commitment, and no tools. It believe it was designed with the intent that ANYONE can talk to God.
And God, so accessible and loving, is, as a result, easy to take for granted.
But not YOU. You are reading these words. You see the value of intimacy. And YOU realize that prayer should NEVER be taken for granted - especially because God has designed it to be accessed and used with a terribly low bar.
Maybe put God into perspective. Isaiah speaks about visiting God and having unclean lips (which are then quickly cleaned by an angel). The unview-able, unknowable, unthinkable creator of the universe is so worthy of our praise, our worship, our respect - and this is the same fellow who is offering us the opportunity to pray.
So ...
Pray in earnest - share on what you think and share your fears.
Pray in truth - do your best not to like about causes but speak from need and love
Pray in intimacy - do not hold things back from Him
But
Pray with reverence - He literally made you. He is worthy of worship
Pray with faith - He laid the groundwork for faith with his life. Do not deny it.
Pray, in all things, about all events, for all people, giving everything to Him.
Perhaps on your knees.
But pray.
P.S. This post is entitled Freedom because there is freedom in praying without ceasing - you can trust God is actively involved in your life. You don't have to worry about praying for this but not that - and you can earnestly sink-your-teeth into the presumption that He is in control.
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