All in Christian

Do you pray as you should, and when you Listen now, Is God’s Voice Calling?do pray, does God meet you there? When He does, people have a great deal to ask of Him and begin to do so immediately, but the most important aspect of our time of prayer is not what we say to Him, but what God says to us. The most powerful moment in most biblical accounts begins when the Lord speaks, but do we hear Him when He speaks to us personally? Are we even listening? Then, if we listen, how do we answer Him? Do we acknowledge Him at all, or just sit dumb in silence? So, if we do hear, how is it that  we respond? Do we say, “Yes Lord!”, or “Here am I Lord.”?

It is one thing to know what a life of prayer is, but something altogether different to live that life. Being called to prayer and answering that call are two entirely different things too. Every Christian receives God’s call to prayer, but so many will cripple themselves by either refusing to answer that call, or by not knowing how to fully engage in it. Are we participating in a dedicated life of prayer today, or are we limping along, hobbled, and without understanding what praying without ceasing means, or involves?

God hears our prayers; He gives each of them audience and provides us with all those things we have prayed for within His will. The question that we who pray should ask is this... “Do I have confidence that God hears me as I pray and that He will answer me?” Confidence in the Word of God is of the utmost importance to those who pray. Put more simply, we must trust in the fact that God will do what His Word says He will do. But, do you we know what that is?

Have we surrendered completely to God? Do we consider everything we are, and everything we have, to be His? So often we say these words, but when it comes time to turn all we have over to Him we renege, or have second thoughts. We promise the Lord that He is first in our lives and that everything we have is His; yet at the first sign of true sacrifice, or at His first request of us we falter. In truth, our Father doesn’t need our possessions... He just desires that we not need them more than we need Him.

How often do we view the strife and tumult of our daily lives as an encumbrance to our abiding in Jesus Christ and God when we should not view it this way at all? In the vineyard the wind blows, the leaves rustle loud, and the sound of the storm grows intense, but at the root, the vine never moves, even as the rain continues on unabated. Every storm provides rain that is drawn into us as strength from the wet ground, and what, on the surface, might appear to be a raging flood becomes the watering can of our faith.

There are times in our lives when we are self-assured and as we study the scripture we say to ourselves “Ah Ha! This is the absolute truth, and I will base my faith on it!” but who are we to be so arrogant? Who are we to interpret scripture without the direction of He whose hand guided the pen? Yet, this is what we are inclined to do as we go about building our castles of faith out of sand; gathering it in buckets from shores that are strewn with stone... and we silence the Holy Spirit, into whose hand God has placed the truth about stones, thus covering our ears to the Lord’s voice with our own hands.

How do we behave at home? I am not talking simply about our physical home on earth, but our spiritual home in heaven. We concentrate a great deal on what a good Father God is, but what kind of daughter or son are we? Do we love Him with all our hearts? Do we serve Him and do His will? Do we honor Him, or do we expect Him to honor our prayers and requests without reciprocation? Do we feel that He is obligated to provide all our desires while we do nothing? We know that He is a good father but are we simply like spoiled children?

One of the questions that I hear asked quite frequently is about the Holy Spirit. Every day Christian believers ask about him because they desire to know who He is, and what he should mean to them and their faith; while many Pastors ask about him to determine what side of the fence we are on. Much like Jesus He fascinates and enthralls us; he brings us to a place where we feel the coolness of the inhale, and the warmth of the exhale as God breathes, and yes, the Holy Ghost frightens many of us, and that fear often serves to separate us from one another.

My devotional reading this morning began with an incredibly insightful statement. Pastor E. M. Bounds began by writing "Worry is the epidemic evil of mankind. Everybody is influenced by worry.", and as I thought about this observation, I came to the conclusion that He was so right. We do worry about many things in our lives... even everyday things. It made me think of my mother who was the consummate worrier. I would often tease her by saying that if she didn’t have something of her own to worry about, she would borrow someone else’s troubles and worry about those. I am making worry sound trivial, but it isn’t. Let’s visit this subject today.

It is true that people do pray more when they are in trouble, and they are also inclined to criticize God in the midst of great trouble, but in God's eyes our lives here are just a portion of the journey... When many are lost to calamity we have a tendency to think they are gone because this life is all we know, but in God it is not the end... Evil never triumphs, the journey is not complete. We already know the end of the story, and God is victorious and dries the tears of the martyred saints. Jesus has already risen and the promise of His return is real… He will return to claim His bride, and the dead in Christ will rise to meet Him. Are we ready?

Placing our relationship with Jesus above all others in our life; is this something that we are willing, or able, to do? Could you walk away from home and family if Jesus asked you to follow Him, and said “I will make you fishers of men."? You might do so if you had nothing there to live for, but what if you had a wonderful family, a life filled with happiness and wealth? What if you were living in complete contentment… would you still leave it all behind and go?

Do we attend church on the Sabboth out of a sense of duty, and go to other church functions to be entertained, or to socialize with friends? Church, like all of our faith, should be much more than a pastime, or a religious country club, it should be where we go for spiritual sustenance, and to gain strength through our study and fellowship with other believers. Yet even though many begin their church life to learn about, and worship God and Jesus Christ, over time they fall into the trap of routine behavior, and socializing. What is the direction our motivation is moving in today?

God is love and he loves us perfectly. When we accept this fact then we can understand our true relationship with Him, and He will reside in the deepest recesses of our heart and soul. How can we say we know God if we don’t know His love, and how can we say that we are created in His image, and not have His love within us? To believe in God is to believe in love... who is it that abides in us today?

We read the scripture and pause on words like peace, rest, walk, and eternity, partially because these make us feel relaxed in our hectic lives, but in reality our faith, and witnessing to others is urgent. Jesus is returning, and when He does the time for decisions and action will be over... instantly! Do you want to be caught between prayers, waiting for a better time to profess your faith, or having lost a soul by putting off a gospel conversation until it was too late?