Grace Is God Speaking To Us, Prayer Is Our Speaking To God.
Recognizing that our cause is, and will be, combated by mighty, determined, and relentless forces, we will, trusting in him who is the Prince of Peace, meet argument with argument, misjudgment with patience, denunciations with kindness, and all our difficulties and dangers with prayer. Francis Elizabeth Caroline Willard
As human beings we were created with the ability to communicate, and when we do not, we become frustrated and tend to crawl in a shell. It is almost impossible for us to be with someone for an extended period without talking because there are so many things that we want to share with them; whether they want to hear them or not. And yet, isn’t it ironic that we have the immediate ear of the One who really cares and we don’t often think about talking to Him? We want to pour out everything to those nearest to us, but often they are not really interested in hearing us because they want to tell us what is important to them.
As we move into a deeper relationship with our bridegroom, we realize that Jesus created us with a special need that only He can satisfy, and in our prayers, we are acknowledging that fact. Adam destroyed the bridge to that satisfaction but God rebuilt it in Jesus with the wood of the Cross. It is God’s pleasure that we need Him and reach out in communion to tell Him of that need. Throughout the Bible we are shown our need for God and our continual resistance to that fact. On the other hand, we also see those men and women who had a strong prayer life and the difference it made in their lives. We need that close relationship that comes from prayer.
Prayer is an integral part of building up and strengthening our faith, and without a strong prayer life we are handicapping ourselves and hindering the Holy Spirit in His effort to move us deeper into the realm of spiritual maturity. Without communicating with God, we are isolating ourselves from the very source of all that we need to fully enter His rest and become all that we were created to be. But if it is to be successful, prayer must become a way of life that can only be learned by the teaching of the Holy Spirit and adoption by our commitment.
It is only through prayer that we can open ourselves up to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit that will draw us ever closer to Jesus and conform us into His image; a little more each day. In the process, it is by our prayers that we pour ourselves out to God, and in return He pours Himself out to us in His grace. And that is a wonderful place for us to begin, remembering that …
James 1:5-6 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. KJV