A new understanding of the gospel and grace is gradually infiltering places in my life where doors have been closed tight for years. One of these areas - a big one - is my prayer life. In my daily walk prayer has just been another check box, that when it was checked off I felt good about myself and when the box was empty, of course, I felt guilty. Last week we heard a sermon on prayer in the gospel and I was so moved. The pastor said,
"Waking up to God's love for me and resting in that fosters a much greater prayer life than working at it." Gordon Bals
Then a friend challenged me to sit in God's presence for 10 minutes without filling the time with words and thoughts....just meditating on being in His presence.
"Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth but from falling in love." Richard Foster
You see, as Milton Vincent (Gospel Primer) puts it, believing the gospel, what Christ has done for me first and foremost, is the engine that drives an intimacy with God in my prayer life.
p. 36 "God is radically committed to my life of prayer. He shed the blood of HIs Son aso that I might be cleansed and rendered fit to stand before Him in love. He also permitted the brutal rendering of His Son so that I might now have a way into the Holy Place through the torn flesh of Jesus. ”Draw near,” He say in Hebrews 4; “draw near,” he says in Hebrews 10; “pray without ceasing,” He urges elsewhere. How can I not feel the infinite sincerity of these invitations, especially when considering the painful lengths that God has endured so that I might enter His presence in prayer?"
For reflection:
~Believing that God is radically committed to my life of prayer read and meditate on the following scriptures.
Look for JESUS as you read.
Ephesians 1:7
Romans 5:9
Hebrews 10:19,20, 22
Hebrews 4:16
I Thessalonians 6:16-18
~Write out the verse that most impacted you in your
own words in your journal.
~Pray and watch the Lord change your prayer life.
REST.
Pray, "Father, I want to fall deeper in love with You, my Father and ask You to enable me to do away with a methodical prayer life that is rote and turn it into a continual conversation with the One I love and the One who loves me perfectly. In Jesus Name (because of the gospel) I pray, Amen."
