I just finished attending the conference that just took place at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY; the title of this conference was Pray, Reach, Challenge, and it was based off of the new vision statement of Southeast. They have realized that they need to become not a church that prays, but a praying church.
They brought in Simon Mbevi from Nairobi, Kenya to speak on the subject of prayer and what it means; what it is. He effectively rocked all of our worlds both with his stories and his faith. Simon has literally changed countries with his prayer life - he has healed people, prayed up rain in a famine, and sat with presidents and popes simply to talk about his faith. He leads prayer meetings at 4:30 in the morning and (though he would certainly not tell you) fasts for months at a time for the sake of changing issues in the world today.
We are tempted to say, "Well, Simon is certainly a godly man, but I cannot achieve as much of a deep, spiritual, and intimate relationship to God as he has..." However, something that Simon said tonight removed that idea from my head.
He told us that we wonder why God doesn't do amazing things through us, and why our prayer lives are not where we would like them to be. He told us that the reason for all of this is that we have a lack of faith in God's power, and a lack of desperation for his presence. We must become desperate for God. So desperate that we will sell what we need to sell, do what we need to do in order to achieve his will. So desperate that we will sacrifice anything and everything in order to draw closer to him and prove our agreement with his will.
We in American culture have become far too self-dependant, to the point that we are comfortable with our request-by-request prayer life, and our S.O.S. communication with God, where we really only get into contact with him when we really need help. We will try all other options before we go to prayer; but Simon asked, why is it that prayer is our last resort? Why would we go to a doctor before we ask the Lord of the Universe for his healing? Why would we continue our lives as usual as we pray to God for a change? Why would we continue to depend on ourselves as we pray to depend on God?
Prayer, in itself, is an expression of humility; it is a forcing of yourself out of yourself. By praying for God's will to be done, whatever it may be, is a lessening of yourself and a glorification of God. Prayer is pride's biggest enemy, because it forces you to be God-reliant instead of self-reliant.
Think about it for a second - God, the biggest, greatest, and most high God in all of creation, can be reached simply on the turning of a word toward him. Does this not blow your mind? It is easier to reach God than it is to reach your best friend on the phone! The God who created the world wants to be in contact with you, and all you have to do is put aside a few minutes of time each day to talk with him, and through this, he will change your life, and the world through you.
We must make ourselves completely desperate for God's acting in our lives. So desperate, in fact, that we would place enough faith in him to begin acting on his response before we see it.
We stay in our house for one more week, though we cannot see the money showing up; we pray our friend would be healed, instead of preparing for when they are not. You want God to prove his care for you? Prove your care for him! Prove that you trust him enough to put yourself at risk for his sake.
How long will it take for us to become desperate? How long will we drive ourselves down before we reach for a hand? How long will we toe the line, say the prayer, and run in the wrong direction? Our prayer life must be aligned with our earthly life; what we pray for must affect how we live. Otherwise, in the same way that our faith without works is dead, our prayers will be found dead, having no foundation with no support if we do not place our full faith and trust in God's ability to answer our prayer.
"Our father who is in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."
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