[ecko_quote source="1 John 1:7"]But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.[/ecko_quote]
Imagine yourself getting ready to sleep. You do your usual things - wash your face, brush your teeth, put on some moisturiser perhaps, switch on your heater, and lastly, switch off your lights. You were able to see everything very clearly until you carried out that very last step - switching off the lights. Now, your room would be filled with darkness. For a few minutes, all you can see is the thickness of darkness covering almost every inch of your room. If you've got your window blinds open, you might see some moonlight fill parts of your room. But for the most part, it's dark. It's very dark.
Let's say; you continue to stare into this darkness for a minute or so. You try to figure out roughly where things are in your room. Now an ordinary person sleeping at nights won't get up to these things, but when you don't feel so sleepy, I'm sure some of us have tried this. You realise that after a while, your eyes can figure out bigger things like where your table is, where your bookshelf is and so on. Let's say you do that for a few more minutes. You start to see smaller things like your stationery on your table, your clothes hanged on your clothes rack and so on.
Do you realise what your amazing God given eyes are doing here? They are adjusting to the light levels of your environment. It's known as "adaptation". "The eye takes approximately 20–30 minutes to fully adapt from bright sunlight to complete darkness and become ten thousand to one million times more sensitive than at full daylight" (Source). Likewise, in our Christian life, we have been gifted with the Spirit of God who leads us into eternal truth - closer to our Father in Heaven. But when He tells us things, it's at our discretion whether to listen and/or obey.
A lot of times, we stop listening to the Spirit of God in particular areas of our lives. The still small voice inside of us starts to become weaker as we continue in our disobedience. In due time, we begin to walk in darkness and fail to differentiate what it is like walking in the light of God. It's indifferent to us, and we are no longer sensitive to the light we once experienced.
Ask God if there are areas in your life where you feel like you are walking in the light but you are actually in the darkness! You are failing to differentiate light from darkness. This often happens when we continue in darkness for so long that we are not longer sensitive to the light - the Spirit of God. Allow the Spirit of God to bring you into the light so you can have real fellowship with God.
Image Source:
[https://wallpaperscraft.com/image/wood_trees_gloomy_fog_haze_darkness_50175_2560x1600.jpg]
[ecko_quote source="1 Samuel 1:17-18"]Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him”. And she said, “Let your maidservant find favour in your sight” so the woman (Hannah) went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.[/ecko_quote]
I mentioned in our previous devotion that “one great difference between Christianity and all other religions is that the believer has a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. There is absolutely no doubt about it, and His answering rate is always 100%. How do I know this with certainty – because in my Christian walk our God never disappointed me. His word says “call to me, and I will answer you” (Jeremiah 33:3).
However, I observed there are some misconceptions about prayer and also a very limited understanding of prayer in Christendom. We can see in our Churches/Fellowships as soon as prayer time starts, people either go out, show restlessness or even sleep during this time. Some people who have been attending services for a long time is reluctant to pray. I think they do not pray because they fear people, or perhaps have no understanding of the relevant provision that our Father provided to His dear children.
There are some genuine questions people have in relation to prayer. They often ask me why we should pray when God already knows our needs? Then, why should we tell Him when He already knows? These are some important questions, and I try to provide you with some insight in this devotion. I do believe and pray that Holy Spirit God will speak to you while you read this devotion and transform your prayer life.
Invitations:
Prayer is an invitation for God to come into our life. Without an invitation, our God never steps into our life because He has given us free will and freedom to choose or not to choose. He is a gentleman, He never trespass boundaries. Therefore, our invitation is essential for God to interfere in our situation. In James 4:2 says “ Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
Fellowship:
Once we invite our Heavenly Father, He will come into our situation, and we will have a fellowship with him (2 Corinthians 6:1). He talks to us, and we speak to him in prayer. In this process, a greater understanding will develop with our Heavenly Father. We could understand Him more and more as our fellowship with Him progresses.
Development:
In prayer, as we fellowship together we ask for certain things, and sometimes He may not provide it immediately, and there would be a delay. The delay will cause us to introspect and tune our life into His ways. The process would enable us to wait upon Him to renew our strength and facilitate to develop a great faith and Christian character in us.
Dependence:
Our Father has created us to depend upon Him in every matter. However, we choose to live independently. Our attitude of prayer will signify that we depend on Him. Our lives would be meaningful if we totally surrender everything and rely on Him entirely. Because, He knows everything. He has power, in fact, He is the power to accomplish the things we desire. Therefore, our Lord said, “ For apart from Me you able to do NOTHING” (John 15:5). He could do it without us, but we could not do it without Him.
God commanded us to pray (Matthew 7:7) and when we pray, our petitions should be made by faith (James 1:6) in the name of Jesus (John 14:13). If these simple rules are followed (prayer, faith and in Jesus name), we can rest assured our prayers are being heard (1 John 3:22; 5:14-15)
Dear ones, if we want to impact our families, our nation, and our world in these critical days, prayer is where it begins.
God knows what we need before we ask, but we are, specifically asked to pray and ask. We pray not impress him (with long, eloquent, excellent vocabulary) not inform Him (because He knows even before we ask Him) but to invite God. So that we might have that fellowship with Him. So that we might grow, and learn to depend on upon Him more. So let's start praying.
Image Source:
[http://www.wnctimes.com/images/copfirecrime/Knock.jpg]
