08/28/2023
How is your life in Christ? Before you answer this question answer another... "How often do you pray?" We think that our life with Jesus is robust because of the works, and the other things we do, and yet we have not humbled ourselves before our Heavenly Father in prayer as He taught us to do. We think that we are like Him as we go through the motions of religion, and yet our relationship with God is starving.
“Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."”
Luke 11:1 ESV
The Apostles were feeling spiritual hunger pains, and longed for Jesus to teach them how to pray so that they could feed their relationships with God. Prayer nourishes our soul just as surely as mother's milk nourishes a child. Prayer contains all the nutrients of faith that we need to strengthen ourselves and grow; yet so many of us walk through our spiritual lives, and attend our churches, without feeding ourselves as we should; we are famished. Oswald Chambers described this need for prayer in a concise way when he said...
"When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God is born in Him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way that the life in God is nourished." - Oswald Chambers
When I was a young man I could eat anything I wanted, and everything I could get my hands on! When Ann and I were first married, I was six feet tall and weighed a whopping 142 pounds. I was thin as a rail yet I ate everything I could get my hands on. When I first moved to Nashville I fell in love with Tennessee BBQ, and one afternoon, while working with two of my brother in laws and another fellow, we decided to have lunch at a BBQ restaurant in Pegram, Tennessee. The waitress came to our table and I ordered four large BBQ sandwiches an order of fries and two Dr. Peppers. She took down the order and turned to walk away; one of my brother in laws spoke up and asked if she was going to take their orders too, to which she replied "I thought that was your order!" If another person were to eat like that they would be the size of a barn, and yet I had no such limitation until I was over fifty years old! It was then that I found what most of my friends had struggled with all their lives... an expanding waist line!
Prayer doesn't affect people like physical food. Each individual is not different in how much they can consume without becoming overweight. Prayer is a one size fits all diet and there is no such thing as overindulgence! It is a miracle diet for the soul and there are never any excess calories consumed. As a matter of fact, we are encouraged by scripture to eat all that we can! Listen…
“pray without ceasing,”
1 Thessalonians 5:17 ESV
Prayer is our sustenance, it feeds our spirit and gives us life in abundance. Yet so many of us neglect it. In our physical lives we rarely pass up a meal because we feel the hunger pains of our body, likewise, we should become attuned to the groaning of our spirit. Even those who do feel it, often try to satisfy their hunger with works rather than what their spirit is really calling out for... prayer, and a healthy relationship with God.
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
Romans 8:13-14 ESV
I watch what foods I put into my body these days, and in so doing I pay special attention to nutrition. One of the phrases I have learned is "empty calories" these are foods we eat that have calories but no real nutritional value. As a Christian we need to pay attention to these kinds of food when we feed our souls. Prayer is the miracle food... the perfect balance between satisfying our need for a relationship with God, and the spiritual energy requirements of our spirit and faith. The word of God is another food that is good for us, but that is a topic we will address another day.
“In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:22 ESV
So today I challenge you to eat in abundance, not food for the body, but food from the bountiful table of prayer. Seek out God in everything you do and everywhere you go... and do so in the name of Jesus. Feed your soul a steady diet of prayer today because this is how we build our relationship with God, and come to know His will for us... Just as Jesus did.
Prayer:
Father I thank you for prayer and the miracle of its joining us in conversation and relationship. I thank you for listening as I reach out to you, and I thank you for speaking to me as we walk each day together. Holy Father, my soul longs for you without ceasing and it is by prayer that this longing is satisfied. Hear me from my secret place as I pour myself out before you, and hear me in the little things as I call out to you in everything I do each day. Then Father, as I close my eyes in prayer each night, may my prayers continue into my dreams until morning. Teach me Jesus to pray without ceasing; teach me, as you taught you disciples, to pray concisely and meaningfully. Teach me to weep, rejoice, praise, ask forgiveness, humble myself, and more, as I come before the Father. Teach me that everything is worthy of prayer and help me feed my spirit and my soul with it as my relationship grows with Him... and you. Let me walk not in silence, but in peaceful and soft conversation; completed in the stillness of my spirit and shining with the splendor of my soul’s satisfaction in the moment. Nourish me Lord and may my faith never starve in its longing for you.
Rich Forbes