We as a community of faith have started our 21 day journey of fasting and prayer. I thought I would try to write something every day that would help us on our journey….
First of all let me say again, there is no real formula…. don’t make this journey legalistic…. but rather relational. How might you restructure your life to make more room for God’s Presence?
Today’s reading was awesome:
“While he live on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because He honored God, God answered him.” Hebrews 5:7 MSG.
Jesus prayed…. So today …. Let us pray with Him. ….
Prayer is a lifestyle of emptying ourselves of all false beliefs, and becoming free to belong only to God.
That is why along with the desire to pray comes an intense resistance as well. We each want to draw closer to God, but we also realize that the closer we get to God the more we will have to relinquish control.
Prayer is a radical action of laying down our old selves and accepting our new self in Christ.
“I live now not with my own life, but with the life of Christ who lives in me…” Galatians 2:20
E. Stanley Jones said:
Prayer is fundamentally and essentially self-surrender… it is getting self out of the way.
Prayer is the wire surrendering to the dynamo…
The flower surrendering to the sun…
The child surrendering to education…
The patient surrendering to the surgeon…
The part surrendering to the whole…
–Prayer is life surrendering to the LIFE….
Prayer is so much more than pleading with God to do something for us. Prayer is the way and means by which we communion with absolute light, love and life.
Prayer brings us into union with God. Our union with Him results in less of us and more of Him.
To pray is to open your heart and life to God. To undress and become wholly transparent before your heavenly parent, who alone can give us life.
Prayer is not just an appointment in your daily schedule. It is not a source of support when you are in need. Prayer is to possess every aspect of our lives.
JESUS TRAINED HIS DISCIPLES IN ONE THING:
RECEPTIVITY….
Acts 1:14 they waited and prayed for the Holy Spirit
Acts 2:4 God Answered
The entire book of Acts tells the stories, of how these men who lived under guidance and power of the Spirit. We are to be people who have been united with the Holy Spirit and now live under His influence. The issue at hand is our own receptivity of the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
Prayer and fasting helps position our soul and spirits to be receptive to His Presence.
