Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:19-22
In my continuing quest to become a woman of prayer, I have identified several hindrances in my life that I must deal with if I am ever to become the prayer warrior I desire to be. Topping the list is laziness. Earlier this week, I read an interesting thought in Oswald Chambers' book on prayer, If You Will Ask. God really convicted me over some of the excuses I use when putting off spending uninterrupted time with Him in prayer.
Since Mr. Chambers expressed it so well, I'll let him share:
"Prayer is easy to us because of what it cost God to enable us to pray. It is the redemption of God, the agony of our Lord, that has made our salvation so easy and prayer so simple. When we emphasize the cost of prayer to us, we are wrong. The cost to us is nothing. It is a supreme and superb privilege marked by supernatural ease because of what it cost God. We tend nowadays to worship prayer. We stress nights of prayer and the difficulty and cost of prayer. It is not prayer that is strenuous, but the overcoming of our own laziness. If we make the basis of prayer our effort and agony, we mistake the basis of prayer. The basis of prayer is not what it costs us, but what it cost God to enable us to pray." (If You Will Ask, 33)
Prayer is not about me. It is not about my efforts. It is not about me getting something from God. It is not about me "sacrificing" time to pray. I can stand before the God of all Creation because of what Jesus did for me! How dare we take so lightly what cost God so much!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
That really speaks to the heart of my issue with prayer. I am too lazy and too invovled in everything else to recognize the priviledge given to me through the blood of Jesus!! I think I need to get that book - or maybe I should just PRAY!
It is not what it cost us to pray, but what it cost God to enable us to pray.
WOW!! That is some good stuff there! Thanks for sharing and continuing to feed me spiritually. :)
I love Oswald Chambers! I know what you mean. Going on a prayer walking trip really ramped up my prayer life---for that week. We were discussing this very same topic in Ecuador. We have complete and total access to the Creator of the universe...we are told in the Bible to go to Him with everything. How I misuse our connection! If I realized and took to heart the amazing power of prayer my life would be drastically different and not only for a week in Ecuador. I don't know if I have told you lately but
I so admire you and your faithfulness, as well as your covicting desire to not be complacent, and to know our Lord better and better all the time. Thank you for that.
As much as it would please me to sound educated and informed and quote historical authors to futher instill my image of being a highly inteligent person...im opting to go for a more "me" comment.....Update much?
Post a Comment