Partnering with God: Prayer

One of the ways God invites us to participate in what He is doing is through prayer and intercession. It is asking God what is on His heart and praying into that with Him. It is a conversation where I ask God to do what already wants to do. Why is this needed? Because God wants to partner with us and with His people to change the world. It is not something He needs; it is something He wants as a loving and relational God.

Viewing prayer as a partnership and journey to knowing God’s heart was not how I saw it in most of my growing-up years. I used to think that intentional and intercessory prayer was just me pleading with God, who was far off, to do something I wanted. I did not see it as God’s invitation to know Him and join with Him in His redeeming work. I also thought prayer was just something Christians did, and I never thought I would be a big prayer person. There has been much work that God has done in my heart over the years in righting this wrong view, but more recently God has changed my perspective in a very significant way. It reminds me of when I was learning how to draw faces more realistically. When I was young, I knew how to draw a simple smiley face. As I got older my drawing improved as I learned and practiced. But then there came a time in my teen years when I felt like I hit a wall. My drawing was pretty good, but I had no idea how to improve and then would see all these lifelike drawings that I thought I could never attain to. How can I make a face look like a particular person? What made my eyes look different than someone else’s? It took months of wondering and looking until it finally clicked. It is in each small detail that I make an eye look like a particular person’s eye. It is through careful study and observation to make that eye look like a specific person’s eye. And that is how I started. I first practiced the eyes, then the nose, then the mouth, and so on, and finally I had to figure out how to put it all together. It took a lot of time and work, but a whole new world was opened to me. Suddenly I knew how to take the next step in my drawing journey. This is what my most recent journey in prayer has felt like. A world has opened, and I know how to improve and where to place my focus, and that is Jesus.

Because of this, I am deciding that I will accept the invitation and make time for praying and interceding a part of my regular life and would invite you to consider joining me. Jesus has reminded me that just like learning to draw, it is a process and practice that takes time to develop. What would happen if we listened to His call and kept in step with Him by starting to give even half an hour a week just devoted to intentional prayer and intercession. This could be a time that we set aside to seek God’s heart and join with Him in prayer. This could be when we focus our heart and mind on Him and seek to know Him better. My goal is at least half an hour, but it is a journey in step with Him that I hope will grow and develop as the practice of my art has. I personally have just started in this practice, and it has been really good! Relationships always take time but are always so worth it. I want to give my all-in knowing God deeper. There are many people of faith that have gone before and prayed for hours and years for God to move, and God did. We might not be the ones to start a great movement, but we can be faithful and can seek God’s heart and celebrate His work whether big or small.

I write this to communicate the richness I have found in seeking God’s face. There is so much more joy and life in knowing Him than I ever thought possible! When He moves, I want to move with Him and not be dragged along. When He moves, I want to know that I partnered with Him in His love and not just trying to catch up. When He moves, I want to know that I have been faithful and rejoice in His work instead of feeling lost or confused as can often come to the Church when God moves mightily. I write this as an encouragement and an invitation, but most of all I write this to ask you to keep me accountable. Don’t let me forget God’s goodness! Don’t let me settle for less than God’s best! And remind me that there is so much more to knowing Him than I could ever dream!