Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Prayer Works

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Isaiah 55:11
My word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Matthew 6:8
Your father knows what you need before you ask him.

Psalm 34:8
Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Prayer Works sounds like a place of creativity and construction, like Microsoft Works or Apple Works. It's a place for bringing the fire to the clay, making something out of nothing, drawing beauty out of the ordinary and mundane.

Prayer does work - every Christian will testify to situations when prayer seemed to turn things around toward the good. But prayer doesn't work - every Christian has disease, every Christian dies. And we know plenty of people who are abused or divorced or broken emotionally, and prayer didn't change their situation.

Jesus says that God knows what I need before I ask him. He knows me better than I know myself. I might be wrong about what I need, but He will never be wrong.

God said through Isaiah that He always accomplishes his purpose. There is no goal God sets that He does not reach.

And David writes with assurance: God is good!

Maybe Prayer Works is a place for me and God to meet, to get to know each other. If God knows me, He knows that I'm pretty focused on myself. He knows that I don't know him that well. He also knows how much that needs to change for me.

So I think I might spend less time asking for what I think I need. That makes sense, doesn't it? Especially if I spend more time just getting to know God. How do I do that? A couple things come to mind:

I could actually be quiet, and picture God in my mind, and invite him to talk with me. Not in response to my questions or needs, but just because I want to be with him.

I can also appreciate the way He works in my life, and praise Him for the beautiful world around me, and worship Him as creator and source and all-everything.

I can do this as much or more for myself as for him, because this is the way I find my place. Not as the guy in charge, but as the guy God made from scratch, from dust, from love.

Lord, You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.

Devotions Archive

Prayer Works

Tuesday, March 3, 2009