Praying. . .

We’ve been praying for a multitude of things. Sometimes I feel as if we are the most selfish people in the world because we want God to do so many things. Perhaps that is true.

But the reality of praying is that our Father has asked us to do so. Not because He needs information from us, or is unaware of our need, or even that He is failing to notice the problems and difficulties of our lives, but because he desires the intimacy of communication and focus. When we move beyond distractions and focus clearly on Who He is and what He plans for us, when the closeness of our relationship moves to clear understanding of our roles in prayer, we are so changed by the experience that we are never to be the same again.

Are you ever tempted to think that prayer changes the mind of God? Or even that prayer changes His design and purpose? In Jeremiah 29:11-13, God says, “I know the thoughts (the mental process of planning and conceiving) that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” God is more than familiar with all the details of our circumstances and situations. He knows His unchangeable plans toward us, and how it all comes out in the end. The joy and success of praying is discovering that we can be part of the means whereby His will is accomplished.

Try to imagine God accomplishing some great thing, like building a great Church in a community somewhere, where people llove Him with all their heart, soul and strength, and where they llove each other with the same kind of self-sacrificing llove, and doing it through you. There is no doubt that it is His design to do incredible things. The question is, are you the means to the end?