Delighting, Expectant Prayer with The Father

Hello Church Family:  When you think about prayer do you think about it as some abstract practice that Christians are just supposed to do?  And then one day you think, “I need to get better at praying, how can I get better at praying?”  And then you come up with certain techniques on how to have a better prayer life.  OK, stop, let me be clear… that is not what this summer series on prayer is about – just getting better techniques for praying.  Techniques will always let you down.  Do you remember in Isaiah 29:13, when the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me…”  Prayer is not to be some abstract thing that “we do” as Christians but a heart engaging with our Heavenly Father.
 
When God commands us to come to Him in prayer, His command is not meant to be seen as coming from some impersonal taskmaster who desires to call us into a life of perpetual guilt-tripping drudgery.  God, the Creator of all things, simply calls us to commune with Him, our Creator, and to have more of Himself.  We cannot look at this as drudgery or simply as something “to do”.  He waits to bless us with an eternal blessing, and that blessing is more of Himself. 
 
Getting more of God in prayer is a striving to “take hold of God” (Isaiah 64:7).  Prayer is a taking hold of God in interpersonal communication.  Getting more of God is initiated by Him coming to us first because we would never take the first step reaching out to Him.  Getting more of God is simply us responding to God our Father who is coming to us desiring communion with us.  Prayer is the foremost exercise of faith, getting more of God.
 
Are you sensing a need to pray right now, to get more of Him?  That is God desiring to be in communion with you, calling you to interpersonal prayer.  He has been moving in you, through His Spirit, to come to Him.  He is waiting for you to respond.  Now, in this time of easy living, constant distraction and endless busyness, we can easily ignore His call to come to Him in prayer.  So, how can we take prayer from something else on our list “to do” to a heartful desiring to taking hold of God in prayer?  Well, we schedule prayer just like we do everything else.  We schedule prayer and then we guard those scheduled times with all that we have.  Then we make it our heart desire to enter our times of scheduled prayer with delight, desiring lively communication from our heart with our Heavenly Father by engaging Him in His Word.  We desire, with expectation, our scheduled time of prayer to go from a time of duty to delight.
 
As you come to your schedule time of prayer, focus on the One to whom you are praying.  As believers, we have the same Spirit of God within us, crying, “Abba Father!” (Romans 8:15).  We are all invited to ask, seek, knock at the Father’s door (Matthew 7:7-8).  We have been made a child of God.  God is our Father.  We are an heir of God and fellow heir with Christ.  You have been given access to your Heavenly Father as Abba Father!  Enjoy the care of a powerful Father in prayer.  You are not alone where everything is up to you in your life, it is actually up to your loving, sovereign, Heavenly Father.  Enjoy the care of your Heavenly Father, get more of God in prayer.  Do you see the Father as One who desires to spend time with you?
 
Psalm 145:18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
 
This Sunday we will be meeting in person at the church building, respecting NC Executive Order #138, if you would like to join us in person at 10am.  And for those who will be staying at home, we will  be live-streaming on our Grace Community Church Topsail YouTube Channel. Push the blue link.  We can also be found at https://www.gracetopsail.com/
 
I look forward to worshipping with you!  In Christ, Steve