Who is on the Chair? On prayer.
Why do people pray?
Why don't people pray more often?
Why are people willing to settle for $3 worth of God? Three dollars worth of God-what does that mean?
I read it somewhere a long time ago: "I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don't want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please."1
I believe the answer to all those questions revolve around two truths. Whether or not we pray, what we pray and how much we pray, whether or not we want three dollars worth of God or all of God that we can possibly grasp has to do with:
~what we believe about God
~who is 'God' in our lives
Today is the National Day of Prayer in the United States of America - a day when devoted Christ-followers will unite in his name to pray. Many will join together physically, others from their own quiet places. At Women of Passion2, we will devote more time today to pray together-not talk about it, but pray.
From my observations of others, and from interviewing the one I know best-people make prayer a priority when God is their first priority.
I was a little girl when I first saw this simply illustrated. If our life is represented by a chair, the question is: who sits on the throne of our lives?
Ego-centered Life - Chair with a big E on it and all other aspects of life floating around without tether. VS.
Christ-Directed Life - Chair with a Cross on the seat and all other aspects of life ordered, and fitting according to his purposes.
It depends on who rules our lives.
The illustration says it perfectly: when we realize that
it is God who created us,
God who sustains the worlds, time as we know it, and
who holds all things in his hand,
then we see our own limitations,
our own incapabilities in controlling that which goes on in our lives.
Then when we realize that it is his greatest desire for us to be in relationship with him;
we realize that:
He longs to lead and guide us
He desires to grant us his wisdom
He died to give us life-abundant life!
He rose that we would live eternally with him.
When we get it, we pray.
We pray to talk with God, to commune with him,
To ask for his wisdom
To ask for his direction
And to ask him to come and do the things that only he can do.
Thank you, God, that you invite us to pray-nay, you commanded us to pray.
'Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything, and I will give you peace.' Philippians 4.6-7.
Go ahead ... pray.
1- Wilbur Rees
2 - Women of Passion is the Bible study I lead in So Orange County, California every week
3 - from the Four Spiritual Laws, Bill Bright.
Christine -
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