Prayer

A great friend, John Vawter
A prayer nugget from Richard Foster and Gayle Beebe in “Longing for God.”
“Through prayer we work to sort out what role we will play as secondary agents in God’s primary purposes. Prayer is not telling God what we think, or simply thanking Hm for His provision of food and drink. Rather it is our active, intentional effort to understand what God is doing and how we can join Him. Thus through prayer we become coparticipants with God. God’s will sets everything in motion. Our will, directed by devotion and prayer allows us to participate in His purposes.

Prayer has evolved for me from the early, “Come Lord Jesus be our guest. Let this food to us be blest;” to, “The Bible says you have not because you ask not, so I’m asking for….” And the result of that prayer style caused much cynicism and resentment toward God for not answering the prayers I was offering (the way I wanted them answered.)” Then intercessory prayer lists were the emphasis, that after a time. became drudgery, for which I would feel guilty when neglecting the lists.

At three score and ten, I’m thinking all those aspects of prayer are important especially during certain times of a walk with God. I’m at a stage in my spiritual journey where I have my requests, my intercessions, my gratitude, but I’m sensing the need to “pray without ceasing” with my ears tuned to what God would want to say to me.

As my good friend John Vawter and I were talking this morning, it is easy for a performance-oriented guy to pray for blessing as we are or have acomplished a task. The vim and vigor of younger years is not a format conducive to pray without ceasing, rather “work without ceasing” and slip in prayer now and then as you go.

As the aging or disease process calls for a slowing down in performance, our walk with God can become more reflective and intimate because the “doing” is diminishing, causing the “being” to become more of a challenge. At this time our prayer becomes an active, intentional effort to understand what God is doing in our lives and also how we can join Him in what HE is doing elsewhere.