Prayer

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I wonder what you think prayer is and how much of it you have experienced? Is your vision and experience of prayer too small? Let us find out together, a small part of prayer!

Prayer is to be at the centre of the relationship between God and the Christian. It is the major interaction and fellowship between God and humans, and of humans communicating with God, both in talking and listening. Prayer is allowing God to be consciously in to all aspects of Christian's life and enjoying God's companionship.

John Calvin, said that part of praying was asking for "what we have learned to be available" in God's love and of His being the infinitesimal good giver. He goes on to say our "only security" is achieved by calling on the Father for His providence out of His infinite mercy.

Prayer is ultimately what humans were made for: conversing with God. Regardless of status or maturity or any other man-made barrier, God is always accessible, through prayer, to all those seeking Him with a contrite heart and a humble spirit. This dynamic relationship enables the Christian to engage in prayer that is both personal and relational.

All prayer consists of a desire or longing to know God better, and that is to be the prime motivation: to know God better and more intimately. Prayer's function is to a constant yearning for God's assistance! It is to be a strengthening of desire towards eternal happiness, holiness and worship and knowledge of God.

God Himself assists us as we pray! Did you know that? He does this by correcting and strengthening the yearning we express. Prayers express desires and thoughts in a contributory way to the journey of the Christian Disciple. Prayer emits our words from ourselves to the God we seek to know, as a response to His reaching out to us.

Through prayer, God is able to comprehend the Christian Disciple regardless of language, grammar or oratory skill as long as the Christian Disciple approaches with a correct attitude. Words however, are not just to be a mental action but also an emotive act, conveying emotions and feeling. Prayer is to convey deep emotions to God, regardless of our language skills. The words spoken in prayer portray our innermost feeling to Him. Because God is personal, He values language and expects His people to talk to Him. Prayer is intimacy with God!

If for some reason, the Christian Disciple is unable to convey their words in prayer, then Romans 8v26, intimates that the Holy Spirit intercedes. Prayer epitomises the Father-child relationship symbolized in the Christian Disciple's relationship with God. It further symbolizes the freedom and peace in prayer, advocated by Jesus to communicate His deepest desires, as in the Lords Prayer (Matthew 6v9-13) and in John 17.

Don't just have your prayer time in the morning or evening and leave it at that. Pray throughout the day as well, asking God for His assistance as you go about your daily life! Go! Pray!

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Words in Scripture Explored

Spiritual Armour

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Faith

People always say that faith is blind! However the Bible says that faith is a total confidence in God’s faithfulness, which leads to reliance, trust and total obedience to Him (Hebrews 11v6). We see this faith in the Godly obedience of those around us and from the Bible and church history.

Faith in Salvation

For salvation, faith is a voluntary change of mind and heart in the sinner in which the person turns to God, relying on and accepting His offer of salvation through Jesus Christ.

1. Mind - recognition of your need of salvation. Acknowledging Christ’s death on your behalf and your need of forgiveness.
2. Emotional (Heart) – your personal assent to the gospel. You ask yourself, “What must I do to be saved?” and then you agree to make salvation a part of your life.
3. Will - Personal trust in Jesus Christ.

Now as a follower of Jesus, you are to continue having faith in Him. Four things at least you are to have faith in Him for:

By faith - He is praying for you

Jesus Christ is making intercessions for His followers (Romans 8:34). He knew the disciples troubles (Mark 6:48), just as He knows your troubles now. He feels your cares and knows what you are going through (Hebrews 4:14-16).

By faith - He will come to you

Ever felt like God is far away? Well you aren’t alone! King David often felt God was far away and unconcerned. However he also knew God would ultimately rescue him. Jesus always comes to you through difficult times, although He may not come in the time you think He should come, because He knows when you need Him most.

By faith - He will help you grow

When the disciples were in the storm and Jesus came to them walking on the water (Matthew 14:22-33), the purpose of this incident was to show that Jesus would be leaving them soon, so they had to learn to trust in Him when He wasn’t physically present. Peter wrote later on in his life, “for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers” (1 Peter 3v12).

By faith, He will see you through

At the same event, Jesus said “Come” and Peter went with Him. This must have encouraged the other disciples, for upon seeing Jesus’ power they worshipped him. Whatever troubles you are undergoing are temporary, and Jesus will see you through.

By faith, you have salvation. By faith Jesus is praying, will come to you, grow you and help you through troubles. By being obedient to God, you are showing others your salvation and showing that faith, is not blind, but active!

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Words in Scripture Explored - Partaker

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To partake, or to be a partaker of something, can mean at least three things! Firstly, it means having the qualities or attributes of something. Secondly it can mean having, giving or receiving something. Finally, to partake of something, means to consume!

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Jesus was, and is, a Partaker!

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Jesus Christ was a Partaker! Did you know that? He was a Partaker, in so much as that when He became human, He adorned human flesh and blood Hebrews 2:14-18.

As a Christian Disciple, you also are a Partaker, for you are to hunger and thirst for righteousness or in other words, be Partakers of righteousness. In this pursuit of partaking after righteousness, the New Testament has a lot to say about what Christian Disciples are to be Partakers of.

Here is a list of other things the Bible says that Christian Disciples are Partakers of:

• When you became a Christian, you became a Partaker of the Gospel - 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.
• When you take communion, you are a Partaker of the Lord's Table - 1 Corinthians 10:14-33.

Additionally as a Christian Disciple, you are a: ~

• Partaker of spiritual things Romans 15:25-27
• Partaker of the material benefits of one's labour 1 Corinthians 9:1-23
• Partaker of suffering and consolation 2 Corinthians 1:6-7
• Partaker of the promises in Christ Ephesians 3
• Partaker of Grace Philippians 1:3-7
• Partaker of the crops that are sown 2 Timothy 2:6
• Partaker of His holiness Hebrews 12:10-11
• Partaker of Christ's suffering 1 Peter 4:12-13
• Partaker of the glory that will be revealed 1 Peter 5:1-4
• Partaker of the divine nature through God's promises 2 Peter 1:1-4

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These things that you are to partake of, which lead to a full experience of the Christian life. Lets go, as Partakers of Jesus Christ, to show the world that He is alive through us. ~

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A God Of Love

We live in a world that is in love with love.  Love, according to some people, is what makes the world go around.  In the Bible, God’s love is revealed. The Apostle John in 1 John 4 does not simply say that God loves, but rather that God is love.  Remember that God is the Holy Trinity, three persons in one. The Trinity is a living, vibrant community of love, and every activity of the Trinity, is an expression of love.  God loves because that is His very nature. Throughout the Bible, God’s love is described as an unfailing, everlasting, intimate, sacrificial, unbreakable, conquering, immeasurable and all-knowing.  How is God’s love seen?  It is seen in two ways.

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Firstly, it is shown supremely in that He has given His Son to be the Saviour of the world, so that if a person takes up that opportunity, they can know and enjoy God in a personal relationship.  God had only one Son, Jesus Christ, and He sent Him on a rescue mission to seek the lost and to reconcile people to God.  This is love in action.  The lover dying for the ones He loves.

Secondly, God’s love is shown when Christians love. As a Christian, you are a child of God, so you should want to be like your Heavenly Father, by showing the world your love for others and your transformed character.  The Christian Church should be a community of love, for this is how the world sees God

If people see Christians that are not loving and kind, rightly or wrongly, the whole Church is branded as a bunch of fakes and hypocrites.  Worse still, God is seen at best as nothing more than a distant uncaring irrelevant figure.  The love between Christians is seen as a visible showing of the invisible God.  The very character of the church should always be to reflect God in all aspects.  The ultimate example of showing people God, is for you as a Christian, to love and be love.  People should be seeing God’s love, through your love.  For as Jesus said, “All men will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another” (John 13:35).

His love releases us from the things that so easilyentangle our daily walk with Him.  The more you hold onto His love, the more you will desire it and the more it will be revealed in your daily life.  Your love in action today, reflects God’s love in action on the cross.  Go and love - to the glory of God!  Maranatha!

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The word for today is Almighty God! Throughout the Bible, God is called Almighty. But how is God, almighty? God being Almighty, can be summed up in 3 words.

Omnipresent – That is God is wholly present everywhere. fills the universe in all its parts without division (Psalm 139v7-12; Jeremiah 23v23-24). For example in Ezekiel 1, Israel is in exile in Babylon and they thought God was left in the Temple in Jerusalem. Yet God appears to Ezekiel in order to show that God was also in Babylon with His people!

Omnipotent – That means God has unlimited power to do all things that are the object of power. With Almighty God nothing is impossible, yet there are things God cannot do such as He cannot do anything that is contrary to His own nature. For instance, He cannot declare something infinite if that something is finite. Omnipotence is an essential quality of God for if God were not all-powerful then He would not be God and would not be worthy of worship. Remember, He stopped the sun during Joshua’s time! Amazing power! God created the universe with His eternal and infinite power! God made everything out of nothing and He sustains it and gives all of it life!

Omniscient - God has perfect knowledge of all things. The Psalmist writes: O Lord, you have searched me and you know me, You know when I sit and when I rise…You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways (Ps. 139:1-2a & 3). God knows all things, past, present, and future and all possible circumstances and outcomes. Therefore He knows all that we do (which includes the remembrance of all that we have done), all that we think (and the record of those thoughts), and all that we do say and all that we could say.

So God is Almighty in presence, power and knowledge and He is mighty to save. As we seek to live holy lives, let us remember that whatever we do, Almighty God is watching. Watching not to condemn us, but watching in order to love us as any good father does to his children.

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