A Holy Invitation
Are you honored by God’s invitation for you to communicate with Him?
Verse of the Day
“The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.”
Today’s Devotional
When my daughter was little, probably about four years old, she really wanted to chew gum. But she did not know how to chew gum, she didn’t know that gum was not to be swallowed, she didn’t know what to do with gum when she was done with it. So, I told her that we had to have “Gum School”. Everyday for several days, she and I would sit on the tile in the entryway of our house and have Gum School. All of the necessary information was both given and practiced on that tile floor. She was very excited about gum school, because she really wanted the privilege to chew gum.
As silly as it sounds, I feel a similar excitement about the “Prayer School” that I feel God has invited me to because I am incredibly honored by the invitation. God wants to hear from me and talk to me. (You too.) And since God is spirit and I am a finite human, some education about the best way to go about this sounds like a fantastic idea to me.
If there is something I want to avoid with prayer, it would be what J. B. Phillips called treating God as a “cosmic bell-hop”, where God responds when humans call and then is dismissed. That attitude seems to be in opposition to the holy invitation to pray.
As I have been studying, the saints whose books I am reading use some really strong language with regard to prayer. I’ll let them tell you:
- Of all the spiritual disciplines, prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father. (Richard Foster)
- Meditation introduces us to the inner life, fasting is an accompanying means, study transforms our minds, but it is the discipline of prayer that brings us into the deepest and highest work of the human spirit. (Foster)
- To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to change us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer. (Foster)
- Real prayer is something we learn. (The disciples, though they had been praying all their lives, asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.) It was libertine to me to understand that prayer involved a learning process. I was set free to question, to experiment, even to fail, for I knew I was learning something. (Foster)
- A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening. (Soren Kierkegaard)
- Jesus taught us to come like children to a father. Openness, honesty, and trust mark the communication of children with their father. Children do not find it difficult or complicated to talk to their parents, nor do they feel embarrassed to bring the simplest need to their attention. Neither should we hesitate to bring the simplest requests confidently to the Father. (Foster)
- Though in its beginnings prayer is so simple that the feeblest child can pray, it is at the same time the highest and holiest work to which we can rise. (Andrew Murray)
- The powers of the eternal world have been placed at prayer’s disposal. (Murray)
- [Prayer] is the secret of power and life not only for ourselves, but for others, for the Church, and for the world. (Murray)
- If we do not pray, what will suffer is the life of God in us, which is nourished not by food but by prayer. (Oswald Chambers)
- Prayer is not a means of self-development; we do not find that idea in the Bible. And prayer is other than meditation. Prayer develops the life of God in us. When we are born from above, the life of the Son of God begins in us, and we can either starve that life or nourish it. (Chambers)
Prayer is our highest calling. Prayer is our deepest work. Being a person of prayer is our holiest assignment. And yet our Father God calls each and every one of us to this work. Because through prayer, He can transform us into exactly who He created us to be. It is such a sacred invitation, yet it is an invitation given to all. Look at today’s verse again. “The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.” The truth is that He is God, and He is inviting each of us to call on Him.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
Are you humbled by God’s desire to communicate with you?
How can you thank God for the gift of prayer?
Are you excited to learn more about prayer, to practice it, and to see God’s transformative work in your life through prayer? Why or why not?
What do you want to say to God today?
What do you need to hear from God today?