Daily Devotional

Prayer

by Jon Hathorn on November 06, 2020

“Ask, and it will be given to you seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" Matthew 7:7

Two men were having breakfast together at their usual place, and eating their usual food, and drinking their usual coffee, with their usual cream and with their usual sugar.  One always had regular granulated sugar, while the other man always used the stuff in the blue wrapper.  But what was unusual on this particular day was a question that was asked.  One of the men, a strong Christian, was asked, "I know you pray often, but I just don't get it - you are a hard working guy, good looking, a great family - so what does a guy like you gain by regularly praying?  I just don't get it."  The reply was one of the greatest answers ever given.  Here was his answer, "Nothing! Nothing at all.  But let me tell you what I lost... I lost anger! I lost my ego! I lost my greed!  I lost my depression!  I lost my insecurity! I lost my fear of death!  And I could go on and on..." Is this incredible!  A man's focus is on the fact that prayer changed him and his life perspective.

All too often we are trying to change God's mind about things we want, rather than aligning our heart with the heart of God. I heard someone say that prayer is coming into the presence of God.  And that our cherished concept should be entering His desires, His ways, His values, and His presence. We live in a world where we are inundated with our own desires, our own ways, selfish values, and a presence that runs away from the Lord.

We often associate prayer with simply asking God for things - satisfying ourselves with things, saying thanks for food, and requesting safe travel.  These are great things to pray for, and yet asking the Lord to be conformed to His image is even more incredible. We have a tendency to become like those we spend time with, and in this regards the more time with spend with the Lord, the more we become like Him.  In a practical way, try setting spending a little more time with God today or tomorrow than you spent with Him in the past.  Then make a special moment when you can spend time with Him.  Here are three ideas:  a specific chair, a specific room, and/or a specific posture.

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