10 Jan 2008

Prayer

I haven't long returned from our monthly Prayer Meeting in Liberty Community Church, and I'd been talking to my good friend Mark as we had a wee cuppa afterwards. This musing is based on some of what we shared together.
When we pray, we are not seeking to change God's will and purpose. That is already set - not in the fatalistic manner that is taught in, e.g. Islam, but because, from His "vantage point" of eternity (which is outwith our time dimension) He sees the end from the beginning. He knows the choices that I will make long before I make them, but my choices never thwart His will. If I am disobedient (or just plain stupid!) and fail to act in accordance with His will, then someone else will do so - but I will have lost the blessing that would have been mine. But He is sovereign, and the fulfilment of His purposes is assured.
So what that means is that prayer is actually about changing me!! It's making me conform to His will so that I will be His faithful servant.
The difficulty is praying. Oh, I can intercede for my family and friends, and for the persecuted church. I can go through the various Prayer Guides that I use. But is that all that there is to prayer? Is it no more than a sort of spiritual shopping-list? The praying that I want to experience is the praying that is the result of an ever-deepening relationship with my Father God. And I'm happy to accept any genuine, and useful, advice!!

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