For a topic that seems so simple on the surface, prayer is one of the most confusing concepts for many Christians. Today, we’ll dig in to the topic of prayer to try to address this confusion. Our verse is from Jeremiah 29:12 which says:
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
This will be a multi-week topic and will include ideas on how to pray exactly as Jesus taught us but first we need to start with some foundational concepts.
We know that God is always pursuing us and that He wants to be in relationship with us. In fact, if we were asked to summarize the entire Bible (including the new and old testament), we could say that the central and overarching theme is that God is always pursuing us. That’s it. God wants to be in relationship with us.
If you are reading this on your own, stop for a minute and let this idea sink in. The Bible is not about making us feel bad for sinning or expecting us to understand deep theological concepts before we can be a “good” Christian. It is about God pursuing us in order to be in relationship.
Just like a parent wants to be in relationship with their child, God wants the same with us. So what does it mean to be in relationship? Certainly, it requires spending time together and talking with each other. Would a parent be happy if their children ignored them completely? Of course not and, in the same way, God wants to hear from us and spend time with us.
As mentioned above, prayer is a simple concept but it is often avoided by Christians. I believe this is primarily for one or more of the following reasons:
- It is a discipline and we have a hard time maintaining discipline in many areas of our lives
- We get distracted easily and our minds wander
- There are more enjoyable things to do
- We don’t want to do it the “wrong” way
- We don’t want to bother God with our petty requests
- We are independent and feel like we can live life on our own
- We think we’re being selfish if we make requests of God
- We may be mad at God and just really don’t want to talk with Him
Whether or not any of these resonate with you, our goal today is primarily to be aware that prayer is not as simple it seems on the surface and that it takes a lot of effort. That foundation will help continue the discussion more effectively. To prepare for next week, check out Matthew 6:5-15.
Questions:
- What do you think about the idea that God’s primary desire is to be in relationship with us?
- Do you agree with the idea that prayer is a much more complicated topic than it seems on the surface?
- If we want to do our part to be in relationship with God, why is prayer so important?
- What are some of the practical benefits of maintaining a consistent prayer life?
- Do any of the roadblocks to prayer listed above resonate with you?
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