Prayer Patterns
One thing that was instilled into me during this weekend was the utter importance of crying out to God in prayer. My first session on Saturday morning really focused on prayer and on connection with him.
The idea that the speaker, Brad, was getting at was that humans, from the very beginnings of Adam and Eve to these days, seem to have 'Connection Anxiety Disorder'. If we don't have a cellphone, facebook, some sort of IM or ways to connect with people around us, we feel lost and disordered. Definitely understandable as the majority of the world has facebook these days... but one of the things that made me really think as soon as he mentioned it, was that when 'Adam and Eve left the garden, they weren't abandoned by God, he followed them out'.
'We have a shepherd who comes looking for us, even in the darkness.'
He came looking for us when we were in the total misery that we had created for ourselves past this gorgeous garden. He found a way that He would find us and keep us with Him forever.
Brad went on to mention the passage in Romans 5 which says that 'Christ reconciled us to God before we knew him'. That before we even understood how to talk, how to breathe, how to sleep... Jesus had saved us from judgment because He loved us. I just can't seem to gather my thoughts when I hear truth like that: that for some ridiculous reason, He loved me enough to make my life something totally different.
'Jesus has done everything necessary to become our friend'- the one to have a relationship with- one to fall passionately in love with because we are no longer held down by the crap we do or the things we think or say.
Brad was talking about his wife and how when they were engaged, there was a period of time that they were 4 provinces apart. This was in the day before email, before skype, before facebook... phone bills were beyond expensive so they wrote letters. Him and I are both huge fans of sending as well as receiving letters but he came to a conclusion that sometimes relationships are too much for paper.
He desired to hear her voice so he braved the expenses and called her. They would talk and talk until they ran out of things to say then they would just listen to each other breathe. Yeah, that's sweet and all but when they're being charged something like $1.05 a minute, breath-listening is something you may have to go without. Even after that though, he said that writing and listening were only so good that he really yearned to see her face, to see her expressions, her body language.
He drew this directly to God. The bible is fantastic and my life personally would be way off if not for the direct word of God but there is something greater and more tangible in the relationship and connection with Him that we yearn to have: that we yearn for a relationship which will shatter this 'Connection Anxiety Disorder' once and for all.
Sunday morning I was really blessed to hear Phillip Yancey speak also on prayer. He made a statement that separated 2 different parts of what needs to happen when we pray:
To re-remember that it is not about us. We are actors put into the phenomenal piece that God is directing... we cannot change our roles or our lines or our parts in the story... we all have bits to play that will end up making a more complete tale but I think we so often forget this rather crucial bit of information.
It has nothing to do with us.
We work ourselves up to doing something right and feel proud, but it is not to our glory but to His. To give thanks through prayer, to be humble before him and really truly realize that it was He who ultimately started everything...
The problem with humans is often our imagination is allowed to run wild and totally go AWOL on us. We formulate who we think God is without really getting to know him through prayer, we fashion this idea in our minds that says that if God was really the God we thought he was, he would do... x, y and z.
We build who we think we need to be before God in order to pray efficiently. But honestly what is efficient prayer? Prayer is just a conversation, but it cannot be unilateral: we have to learn to listen less than we speak.
We need to fix our view of God before we can truly say that we will follow him.
The idea that the speaker, Brad, was getting at was that humans, from the very beginnings of Adam and Eve to these days, seem to have 'Connection Anxiety Disorder'. If we don't have a cellphone, facebook, some sort of IM or ways to connect with people around us, we feel lost and disordered. Definitely understandable as the majority of the world has facebook these days... but one of the things that made me really think as soon as he mentioned it, was that when 'Adam and Eve left the garden, they weren't abandoned by God, he followed them out'.
'We have a shepherd who comes looking for us, even in the darkness.'
He came looking for us when we were in the total misery that we had created for ourselves past this gorgeous garden. He found a way that He would find us and keep us with Him forever.
Brad went on to mention the passage in Romans 5 which says that 'Christ reconciled us to God before we knew him'. That before we even understood how to talk, how to breathe, how to sleep... Jesus had saved us from judgment because He loved us. I just can't seem to gather my thoughts when I hear truth like that: that for some ridiculous reason, He loved me enough to make my life something totally different.
'Jesus has done everything necessary to become our friend'- the one to have a relationship with- one to fall passionately in love with because we are no longer held down by the crap we do or the things we think or say.
Brad was talking about his wife and how when they were engaged, there was a period of time that they were 4 provinces apart. This was in the day before email, before skype, before facebook... phone bills were beyond expensive so they wrote letters. Him and I are both huge fans of sending as well as receiving letters but he came to a conclusion that sometimes relationships are too much for paper.
He desired to hear her voice so he braved the expenses and called her. They would talk and talk until they ran out of things to say then they would just listen to each other breathe. Yeah, that's sweet and all but when they're being charged something like $1.05 a minute, breath-listening is something you may have to go without. Even after that though, he said that writing and listening were only so good that he really yearned to see her face, to see her expressions, her body language.
He drew this directly to God. The bible is fantastic and my life personally would be way off if not for the direct word of God but there is something greater and more tangible in the relationship and connection with Him that we yearn to have: that we yearn for a relationship which will shatter this 'Connection Anxiety Disorder' once and for all.
Sunday morning I was really blessed to hear Phillip Yancey speak also on prayer. He made a statement that separated 2 different parts of what needs to happen when we pray:
- Inviting God into our lives
- Inviting ourselves into God's life.
The important thing when regarding how to integrate ourselves into God's plan and life is to ask a question when faced with various opportunities and circumstances (literally on a day-to-day level: Phillip brought up the supermarket).
How does God see this scene?We have to take ourselves and our opinions, our assumptions and emotions out of the equation and start 'seeing the world through not our lenses but by God's perspective'. The other bit that came out at me was that 'prayer is much less about getting God to answer our prayers and fulfill our desires, but rather being available and trying to see what God wants to do and how we are to work within this plan'.
To re-remember that it is not about us. We are actors put into the phenomenal piece that God is directing... we cannot change our roles or our lines or our parts in the story... we all have bits to play that will end up making a more complete tale but I think we so often forget this rather crucial bit of information.
It has nothing to do with us.
We work ourselves up to doing something right and feel proud, but it is not to our glory but to His. To give thanks through prayer, to be humble before him and really truly realize that it was He who ultimately started everything...
The problem with humans is often our imagination is allowed to run wild and totally go AWOL on us. We formulate who we think God is without really getting to know him through prayer, we fashion this idea in our minds that says that if God was really the God we thought he was, he would do... x, y and z.
We build who we think we need to be before God in order to pray efficiently. But honestly what is efficient prayer? Prayer is just a conversation, but it cannot be unilateral: we have to learn to listen less than we speak.
We need to fix our view of God before we can truly say that we will follow him.
'If your image doesn't match up with the image of Jesus in the gospels, you need to fire that God.'
'Okay God, what do you want to do in the world and how can I work in this?'
Phillip Yancey made reference to a guy who he knows who started up a website that takes the fright and fear of terrorism and transfers it to something that we are able to better register and battle against. Take the shock out of what humans are doing to each other and work in love to show Him to those who crave it so desperately.
Prayer asks us to make God known and offer his drink to a thirsty world.
'God is always present, we just have to make Him visible.'
-Budd
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