Prayer

Prayer. Talking with A Person that can't be seen, and isn't communication between two humans, but between (a) human and Diety. So, there is a different reverence than even a subordinate speaking with his superior. Its out of this world, quite literally.

Couple things about prayer.

I am double minded about it and towards God. While I pray for something extraordinary to happen, I pick up the rusty tools of self reliance and start hard work on the job I asked the Lord to complete. We are to ask with mustard seed faith (extremely small) that the mountains be picked up and moved (impossible). So instead of trusting God to move them and trust He is in fact strong enough to move them, I start shoveling the dirt and moving the mountain myself, one shovelful at a time. And in doing so, trample God's glorious, mountain-moving power, discount my "faithful" prayers and reveal my perception of who I think God is and what His capacities are.

Just like the church that prayed fervently for Peter to be released from prison in Acts 12, with all 4 squadrons of guards securing him, and then saying 'you are out of your mind' when the servant girl reported that he was outside the gate. Out of your mind, God wouldn't really do what we were asking. We just wanted to appease the guilt of our conscience. Do the right thing, check the box and fulfill our heavenly duty. AND LOSE SIGHT OF THE SAVIOR!!! So easy to do this when asking for anything besides a general blessing of the day and a safe drive down to Chicago. How about when we ask for something outside common grace that isn't likely to happen unless God intervenes.

Then there was the king of Isreal:

¹⁸Then he said, "Take the arrows," and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground," and he struck it three times and stopped.

¹⁹So the man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have destroyed it But now you shall strike Aram only three times."

Asking for people to be saved, changed, anything crazy, definitely falls in this category.


Father, my prayers to you reveal my wicked thoughts towards you and my perception of your insufficiency and weakness. Thank you for not destroying me. I believe, help my massive unbelief. By the mediation of your Son's blood, Amen.