Talking with God… Prayer 2.0

Talking with God..Prayer 2.

What comes to mind, if I were to ask you to explain to me what prayer looks like? . . . Seems simple enough, right? For instance, many references about prayer in our church, in discussion and even in the bible point to a way to speak to God. We learn to bow our head, fold our hands, kneel at our bedside and offer our requests to God. We bow our head and fold our hands before dinner and give thanks and ask for his blessing over our food. . . . All good and legitimate methods of prayer. Plenty of scripture to support this kind of prayer.

But with such an incredibly important and fundamental requirement in our faith, perhaps we should take off our colored glasses and really contemplate what our prayers should or could be like. You know, in the old testament, these types of prayers above are all that was acceptable. Folks had to go to the tabernacle to attempt to be close to Gods presence. Without being near the Holy of Holies at the tabernacle, their prayer was primarily a one-way deal; you would fire off a prayer to God and hope or trust that he heard you. But is it like that for us today?

Let’s take a look at a couple of scripture references below:

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” Ephesians 6:18

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

When I look at these scriptures in light of the type of prayer reciting/requesting above, it just does not seem feasible to pray always or at all times. . . I think that is a pretty good indication that, at the very least, prayer has either changed, or expanded in its scope at some point in history. . .

Of course, many of us know that prayer and communication with God changed radically when Jesus died on that cross for our sin! The moment Jesus died, the veil to the inner temple was torn from top to bottom. This was a clear sign from God that Jesus had now made a way to restore that separation between man and God. When we put our faith in what Jesus did on the cross, His Spirit comes to dwell IN-US and our prayer life explodes into new possibilities! From that moment in time, to all who believe, we now can quite literally walk and talk with God! Prayer is immediately 2-Way communication with God. We have God in us, so we can walk and talk with him all day long, just as the verses above suggest. What a mind blowing treasure that instantly changes everything!

Is it still good to bow our head before a meal or kneel at bed time and offer up our prayers to God? . . of course! But what is just radically crazy cool, is that God is now with us. Weather we bow, or not. Weather we kneel or stand or sit or sleep. God hears us and He speaks to us. His presence is always with us and we are never alone. . . Seriously, it is no longer “I” that pray, but “We” – The Spirit of God is in us so even our nature and character has changed. You could correctly say that your life is a prayer and that you are now always praying with God and to God. . . . How cool is that!