Prayer in the "Cool of the Day"

James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you
Now that we have taken a look at the elements of prayer we can take a look at the one thing that makes it a source of daily nourishment and hope.
Growing up in the Holiness Movement in the ‘60s and ‘70s, prayer was taught as a discipline. It was the obligation of every person that pursued holiness to get up at 5am and pray. We also had to go to Prayer Meetings and spend an hour with the 4-5 other brave souls who endured those times. By the time I was in college, prayer was a task to be endured. I knew that I had to do it, but I never got anything out of it.
In truth, I didn’t understand prayer at all. My mother was a praying woman and I had seen my share of miracles as a result of prayer. The confusing part was that I had seen my father get up every morning before the crack of dawn to kneel in our living room in prayer. Everyone else saw him as this church planter, this evangelist and this spiritual giant but, I saw him as someone who was hardly ever there and when he was there was always in a bad mood. He was a stern disciplinarian and you didn’t cross him without fear of the belt. He might have been a praying man but it didn’t seem to make a difference in his life.
It wasn’t until the mid ‘70s when I went to a Jesus Festival and heard a couple of young guys talking about falling in love with Jesus and getting to know God in an intimate way that my view of prayer started to change.
In truth, it has been a lifelong journey. One, that like anything else, has had its’ ups and downs. The down periods are not because He has stopped talking to me, it’s because I have drifted and stopped listening. When I have drawn near to Him He has always been faithful and has met me in that place.
Before the fall of man we had a communication with God that is hard to imagine because of the gulf that has come between us as a result of sin.
Gen 3:8 “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day… “
They walked and talked with Him in the garden in the “cool of the day”. I can’t even begin to fathom what that must have been like.
Well, that’s the point; we can begin to know what that is like, because Jesus has made a way for us to regain that intimacy with the Father. He has made a way for us to meet Him in that special “cool of the day” place where everything else fades away and it is just Him and me. Whatever else prayer may be and can accomplish it is that time where our God becomes personal to the point of intimacy.
That desire to be with Him is what keeps us coming back. It is not duty or obligation. Yes, there is discipline involved as we learn the practice of the presence of God, but it is an exercise in love. I make myself talk to my wife. I make time to spend with her. I make it a practice of asking her what she wants and desires. I make myself do all these things because I know that if I don’t, I will get busy and I will end up taking her for granted and we will drift apart. I make myself do it, but not because I have to, but because I want to because of my love for her. The benefits to me far outweigh the effort I put into it. The same goes for our prayers. Yes, there are times when I pray out of obedience and discipline, but the more I do it the closer I get to Him. The closer I get to Him the more I want to pray.
Jude 20-21 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
This is why we are to pray in the Spirit, so that we may keep ourselves in God’s love. Prayer is the conduit for that love. Through prayer God’s love is lavished upon us and it builds up our faith.
That is why being in the Word and in prayer are such important disciplines. Through His Word He communicates His will and His plan. Through prayer, He communicates His love and His power.
Let’s us be a part of the Great Romance and meet our Lover in the “cool of the day”.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Theology of the Holy Spirit

Image
  I haven’t written in my blog for a while now. However, seeing as the point of this stream is to talk about Spirit-led Living, I feel that there is something that I must address. Growing up I would read the New Testament and I formed a theology based on what I read on its’ pages. I believed that it was true, and I also believed that those things were not only for then, but also for today. Through the years as I was involved with several denominations, Wesleyan, Free Methodist, Assemblies of God, and Grace Brethren among others; I never felt that I could sign on the dotted line to become a member as agreeing with all their doctrinal positions. While I agreed with a large portion of what they believed, they all had doctrinal points that I felt were not Biblical. It wasn’t until I came upon the Vineyard that I felt that I found my tribe. From the Evangelicals I took a deep reverence for the Gospel and the Word as the inspired, inerrant word of God and the litmus test for all that we ...
Read more

Transparency

So, at her goodbye party, Michelle challenged us to be more transparent. Here goes my first attempt. I don’t usually write about my personal life on Facebook, both because I am a private person and second because I’m always concerned about what people will think. One of my shortcomings is that I have always been a people pleaser. As such, I tend to stay away from personal or controversial topics. No more. The time has come to take a bold personal stand for the sake of Christ. I am passionately in love with Jesus. However, I don’t always live that way. I have my struggles and if I want Him to stand up for me on Judgment Day; I need to stand for Him now. While I have a wonderful wife who is my best friend, I don’t have any close male friends and I struggle with loneliness. I have tried to reach out to guys but unless I initiate interactions, those relationships tend to go nowhere. I finally realized that if I want a friend, I am going to have to open up to someone and t...
Read more

Transparency - Part 2

First, I want to thank those of you who have given me feedback and told me to keep going. It really has been encouraging. As Pastor Karl continues his series on “Beating the Devil With his Own Stick”, he challenged us to look at the lies the enemy has spoken to us. Some of us have bought into these lies, but if you are like me, they are just there below the surface. We don’t think about them consciously all that much, but they are like those nasty noseeums that buzz around your head when you’re mowing the lawn. I’ve got a couple of favorite ones that tend to hang on in the back of my mind. “Your father was a failure and so are you.” My father started a number of businesses all which folded within a couple of years. He also planted over 10 churches in his lifetime. Most never grew beyond 50-60 people. I have no idea if any of them still exist today. Counting JesusChurch, this is my 5 th church plant that I have been a part of and none of the previous 4 still exists today. ...
Read more