As I read my bible I am more and more convinced that half of what we believe is because someone told us, not because it is actually written in the word. For instance, the disciples asked Jesus to “teach them to pray.” And what did he tell them? He said, “this is how you should pray. Our Father which art in Heaven……Thy will be done.” I am convinced that our prayer is a lot less words and a lot more worshipping and beholding him and who he is. King David said, “the one thing I desire is to behold (to see into the favor and beauty of God) the beauty of the Lord and to enquire (to look into, to ponder, meditate) in his temple. (Psalm 27:4) Okay, are we called to intercede, stand in the gap, battle it out, pray, press in? Some of it yes, but all of it.? Hmmm… For instance, Jesus did it all and said, “it is finished.” So I ask, “what gap are we supposed to be standing in?” He is our All and All and is able to fill our every need. Why do we struggle and strive in prayer to twist God’s arm? He knows our every need before we even ask. Yes, we pray. And we are to pray fervently. But again, what does that really mean?
Our Father is moved by us!
The fact is, our Father is moved by us! Prayer does move him into action! But not by our striving prayer; not the length of our prayer, which is prideful thinking. He is moved to action because of his great love for us when we tell him how we feel. Any loving parent wants his child to come to him, to share his heart with them. And then does that parent say, “too bad, you didn’t talk to me long enough, or you messed up”, or the like? Of course not. And so even more so with our Heavenly Father.
God is in the business of setting the captives free.
Battle it out? Hmm….last I knew the battle was the Lord’s. (2 Chronicles 20:15) Yes, we are soldiers of the Lord and we are called to battle. BUT, what does that mean exactly? Our battle is not with the Lord, the battle is between our spirit and our flesh. When we pray, “Thy will be done” we are lining our spirit up with our Heavenly Father’s and the striving goes away. Like I said, I am learning that prayer, and battling it out, and pressing in, etc, etc, is more about beholding him, worshipping him, meditating on him, loving him, and receiving his love for us, than the actual act of struggling and striving to make something happen. God is in the business of setting the captives free. And WE are the captives! We have been (and still are) held captive by our false beliefs of who he is and who we think we should be; who and what we believe him to be, and who and what we believe he thinks we are. Therein lies two major keys to a harmonious and peaceful relationship with him.
(Psalm 139:17) “His thoughts concerning us are more than the sands of the sea”.
He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. We don’t know the end from the beginning. The bible says we know nothing as we ought to. (1 Corinthians 8:2)
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “all I know is Christ crucified.”
