Learning to Pray...Day 5...Praying Presumptuously

Has your spouse ever looked deeply into your eyes and said, "Sweetheart, I know that you say you love me; but often feel like you take me for granted? Do you really love me? "

If so, then you can relate to how our Heavenly Father feels when we fail to pray. Prayer is the most intimate time we can spend with the one we say we love...God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. But all too often we come to our time of prayer feeling a little too comfortable...lacking the full knowledge of our reliance on our Heavenly Father.

Take God's chosen people, the Israelites; all through the Bible we see them as an ungrateful and thankless people. God freed them from bondage; destroyed the Egyptian army as the Israelites fled on dry land; gathered manna sent from Heaven each morning...the list is endless of all that God did for them..yet, Scripture tells us they "forgot His benefits". They did not call on Him and because of their acts of nonchalance worship, their love and attention was diverted to the idols of the pagan lands in which they roamed. When we fail to give our ardent affection to our true love (God),  it all too often is bestowed on lesser beings (idols).

But our greatest "sin" in our prayer life is not that we don't pray or that we don't pray enough...it is that we pray all the while blinded to the blessings that we have received. We take for granted ALL that God has done for us and because He has blessed us so, we lose sight of our need for Him and our TOTAL DEPENDENCE on Him. This lack of awareness leads us to presume that all is fine and we begin to take our love relationship with our Father for granted...and this serious breach in our love relationship allows us to trivialize who God is and our need for a relationship with Jesus.

Jesus knew this could and would happen, so He instructed his disciples (you & me) to do the following in Matthew 7:7-11;  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

So when we pray as "God's children", we pray to our Father because we belong to Him and He wants to give us the things we need and even the things we may want...but when we become too comfortable and presume that God will always give us His blessings even when we don't ask, we break the heart of God as He ask each of us, "My child, I know that you say you love me; but I often feel like you take me for granted? Do you really love me? "

Yes, we can let God's goodness become our excuse to neglect Him and so because we are "so blessed", we can become insensitive to our need for His continued grace and mercy showered into our lives. When this happens our relationship fades and we become distant; so we pray only when we have to, when it's convenient or when we have a real need or in the midst of one of life's storms. So what's the answer to avoiding losing touch with our "true" love?

DO NOT PRESUME GOD'S GRACE...dive deeply into God's word; journal His blessings in your life and speak to your family and friends of his goodness. Take time to praise Him every day and remind yourself that He is ever present in each step you take.

Do what the Master told us to do...keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking and in so doing, you will pray with an ever-growing confidence as you call to mind the goodness shown to you by your Heavenly Father.... and in this,  you will always be reminded of your deep longing for His grace and His love for you, HIS CHILD!

Loving the Father...Dwelling in His Grace through prayer,

WPQ

Poem for the day...

Don't even think to start a day

Until you take the time to pray;

So go into your secluded place

And ask the Lord to send His grace...

Then shower Him with love and praise

And give Him thanks for all your days.

Seek His will so that you may know

He leads you where He wants you to go.

And should you pass a door that's locked

Take time to stand before and knock;

For all the blessings He has for you

Are waiting to see what you will do?

For the Father has so much to share

With those who come to Him in prayer.

So let Him know your hearts' desire

Is to burn for Him....A HOLY FIRE!!!!

WPQ  © February 2019