Thoughts for Life: #21 Prayer as a Conversation with God

Alvin Vandergriend- It's clear from Genesis 3:8 that God regularly met Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening in order to spend time with them in conversation. It was part of Adam Eve's regular, perhaps even daily, experience. So on this day when they heard "the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden", they knew it was time for another talk with God.

Prayer is conversation with God. What regularly took place in the Garden of Eden—conversation between God and humans—was prayer. This "prayer" was clearly not a stilted, formal, cliché-filled monologue. I can only imagine it to be a relaxed, uninhibited, informal, two-way conversation. That, I think, is the first and best picture of prayer in the Bible. (Google image, Adam & Eve)

What happened there in the garden instructs us about prayer. It shows us first, that God takes the initiative in prayer. It's the Lord who comes to Adam and Eve and calls out. When you feel a desire to pray, it's God who is stirring up that desire in you and inviting you to meet with Him. Prayer, is essentially a relationship that begins with God.

This garden event also shows us what sin does to prayer. After they sinned, Adam and Eve were reluctant to meet with God. Instead of skipping out to meet their beloved friend, we see them hiding in the bushes, feeling ashamed and guilty. Fear has replaced freedom.

Sin put a gulf between God and the first human beings. Conversation couldn't happen with Adam and eve hiding in the bushes. Sin hinders prayer.

Have you ever felt reluctance in coming to God? At times we are like Adam and Eve—afraid of God, hiding behind excuses and hesitant to meet Him. Unconfessed sin, harbored in the heart, cancels out prayer.

But grace restores prayer. Notice that God doesn't walk away and leave Adam and Even in their hiding place. Instead He calls them out and graciously helps them come to grips with the sin that has estranged them from Him. God initiates the process that leads to forgiveness, to restored fellowship, and to opened channels of communication— to prayer.

From the beginning God intended prayer to be a restful, two-way conversation with Him, like that in the garden before sin. God brings us back to that again and again as He comes in grace to meet us each day. God wants to walk with us and to enjoy our company.

When God comes to meet you today, don't hide. Welcome Him! Grace has prevailed. In Christ your sins are forgiven. Go out to meet God laughing and skipping. And have a relaxed, informal, dialog that will be a joy for both of you.

(pp. 58, 59 in Love to Pray- 40 Day Devotional for Deepening Your Prayer Life by Alvin Vandergriend)

Let's pray-

Father, there have been times that we've been reluctant to meet with You for times of prayer. Please help us identify and deal with the sin You reveal to us, which can become a hindrance to meeting You in prayer.

Help us realize that You are a thinking, feeling, willing, acting, talking, listening God, and that You invite us to be comfortable talking with You in plain language and in ways that are relaxed, informal and uninhibited.

We are grateful that You are present with us through Your Spirit and eager to converse with us. Please deal with our sin and eliminate it as a barrier to our relationship with You.

May we intercede for the people around us whose prayer lives are constricted because they're hiding from You. We ask these things in the name, and for the honor of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Today's Bible verses-

Genesis 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, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden."

Psalm 23:2-3 (NIV) "He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul."

Quote for today-

Jerry Trousdale- "Discipleship is not a matter of knowledge alone; it is equally a matter of obedience. The Bible is not a collection of information to be used to increase our knowledge; it is a collection of truths to be obeyed. Knowledge alone never produces spiritual growth and maturity because it doesn't transform life. Obedient discipleship does. The gold standard of discipleship is Jesus' own words: "Make disciples . . . teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19, 20). [Taken from p. 101 of MIRACULOUS MOVEMENTS by JERRY TROUSDALE)

Words of wisdom-

- When we realize what we've said or done has displeased the Father, may we be quick to admit it and ask for forgiveness. This allows the grace of our Lord Jesus to be applied to us, to bring us into right relationship with the Father again so our prayer conversations will be unhindered and effective.

Today's question-

What did Gabriel tell the young virgin, Mary?

He informed her that she was favored by God, and that she would be God's chosen vessel to birth and bring up His very Own Son. They were to name Him, Jesus, which means "God with us." Because she and Joseph had not officially become man and wife, she questioned how this could be. (Luke 1:26-35)

Gabriel informed her that God's Holy Spirit would overshadow her and she would become pregnant with the Son of God! She worshipped and agreed to this revelation of great blessing. We see that Jesus walked and lived as a man for over 3 years of ministry after becoming 30, experiencing everything humans did from birth, yet without sinning.

Mary's sorrow came at His crucifixtiion, when He died for the sins of the world. The promise was that what He would do would bring the Father's promise of deliverance from sin, and to renew our relationship with Him through faith and obedience to Christ's commandments. (See Romans 5).

He would deliver us from our iniquities and assure us of eternal life with Him in heaven, which had not been available up to this time. So, what should be our reaction to God's provision through this babe of Mary's?

Believe that Christ was and is the Son of God, and confess that we are sinners and repent of them, and ask for His forgiveness through the Atonement of the Cross some 2,000 years ago.

1. Present ourselves unreservedly to God for His will and purpose for our lives. (See Romans 12:1)

2. Believe that nothing is impossible with God. (Luke 1:27)

3. Believe God's promises given from the beginning. (See Genesis 3:1-24; Ps. 89:19-37; Ps. 53).