Praying hard

Our current sermon series at Ridgeview has been a lot of fun. But it's had more than its fair share of "ouch" moments. You know what I am talking about? Those moments where God gets my attention by poking and prodding at those sensitive areas of my heart. Two areas where God has been prompting me are this...prayer and His imminence.

Now, I've always believed in God's imminence (the aspect that God is here and actively involved in life). There has never been a doubt that God is near and strongly desires to be a part of my life on a daily basis. I've just recently been reminded about how much God wants to be involved in the smallest of details. Our tendency--at least mine--is to trust God with those really big things and try to take care of the small stuff ourselves. But the Old Testament reveals--all of Scripture reveals--that God wants to be involved in all areas of our life. The irony is that my life would be so much easier if I would simply let Him do what He wants to do there.

Most of that happens through prayer. Once again, I've always believed in prayer, trusted in its power. But reading and teaching these books of the Old Testament has made me more aware of the ongoing "conversation" that occurs between God and His people. It's not an on again, off again kind of thing. It is truly a moment-by-moment communication between a Creator and His people.

Here's the really cool thing...the more I talk with Him, the more imminent He becomes, the more active He is in my life and the easier things are for me, even in the worst of situations. This is why Satan works so hard to keep us busy. I just jumped on Facebook to reply to a message and I scrolled through the status updates. There were calls for the end of the week, a couple of them asking for some alcohol relief from the stress (hey, not all my friends abstain from drinking. Some are Baptist deacons) and others referenced their hectic schedules. Is it any wonder that the Enemy keeps us defeated? It's because He keeps us from praying and inviting God to do what God so desperately wants to do. Some lessons, it seems, are just harder to learn.