August 13, 2004

Let’s face it.  Spiritual things are hard to discuss with everyday words.  In fact, they’re not only hard to talk about, they’re hard to think about!  There are just some things about Faith and the Kingdom of God that make us sprain our brain muscles when we really try to understand them.

As a result of our difficulty in understanding such things, there is often a temptation for us to assume that because the spiritual realm is so “spiritual”, it is therefore unapproachable – that it is too mysterious for us to understand and consequently impossible for us to experience meaningfully.

For example, we sometimes feel too intimidated to make prayer a practical priority in our lives or we dress it up with so much formality that it ceases to be genuine prayer.

On the other hand, there is also a temptation to sometimes take prayer too much for granted and then approach it tritely (if we approach it at all).  Prayer may seem to us either lacking in any real benefit or is a religious duty, a strict discipline with which we afflict ourselves.

But real prayer is neither of these things.  First and foremost, prayer is the activity of a life which dwells in the presence of God.  It is quite literally, “going into His presence” though we still stand here on this solid earth in the full light of the material world.

How sad then if we neglect that for which we were created!  Remember that Jesus died so that your sin may be forgiven and removed from you so that you may stand in God’s presence without guilt or shame.

If you never trouble with going into His presence, then you cannot “come to know God”.  If you are not “coming to know God” then you are not receiving eternal life (John 17:3).  If you are not availing yourself of eternal life, why did Jesus then die?

If we do not pray, we trivialize the purpose of His suffering and death.  We also surrender the abundance of joys and comforts that His presence affords us.

Prayer is a stance and attitude that we adopt signifying our reliance upon His love and awesome power rather than the foolish alternatives given by the world.  It further declares that we have the strength and good will of Almighty God sustaining us though the weight of the world oppresses us.

Prayer is simple child-like dependence and devotion of one who implicitly trusts in God.  It is a love song sent up from a heart overflowing with adoration and passion for its Creator.  It is the soul-wrenching lament of one trapped in the mire of loneliness and pain.  Prayer is the crying out of one life for the deliverance of another.

Prayer is talking with God but is also sitting silently before Him.

Prayer is the giving of thanks and praise to the Most High but is also the receiving of the blessings of His presence, joy and peace.

To NOT pray is to be completely and utterly alone though surrounded by a sea of people.  But to really pray is to be with God as we walk along through life.

To NOT pray is to languish in failure and futility however successful the World tells us we are.  But to really pray is to be about our highest calling of all.

Let us be careful then to be a people who pray.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the Word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ…” (Colossians 4:2-4).

(Thom Mollohan has ministered in southern Ohio for the last nine years and is pastor of Pathway Community Church.   He and his wife are the parents of three children.  If you would like to send a comment or question to him, he may be reached by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).