Psalms 102:1-2 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You. Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my trouble; incline Your ear to me; in the day that I call, answer me speedily.
How amazing is it that in Christ Jesus we have 24/7 access to the very throne room of God? If we stop and truly reflect on what that means, it is simply overwhelming. Yet, how many of us spend the kind of time in prayer that we are told to in God's Word? In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we are told, "Pray without ceasing." Before that we are told to "Rejoice evermore"; and after that we are told, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Wow...stop and take that in for a moment. It is the will of God that we rejoice, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks. Again, I say...the will of God. So why is it that most of the time we only pray when we want or need something? Why does most of our prayer time consist of desperate pleas to God to help us get out of situations we do not want to deal with. I am not saying that we cannot go to God in times of trouble. We must absolutely go to Him in times of trouble and times of need; but we also need to go to Him for the purpose of giving praise and thanks. We must go to Him in times when nothing significant is going on in our lives, and we simply want to spend time in fellowship with Him...just talking and listening. There is nothing wrong, or difficult, about opening the Word of God, reading, listening, and then responding to what He might be talking to us about. Why do we not spend more time in conversation and fellowship with our loving God? Is it because we have allowed other things, people, and life goals, to have priority in our lives? Are there things that need to be re-prioritized in our lives so that God is Number One once again? I think of the lyrics of a hymn that read, "What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!" We do not have to wait until life starts to crumble and fall apart around us. We can spend time with a God who wants to spend time with us, right now.
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 7:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).
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