Faith
They speak of the power of the pen, for example, someone writing a review of a show, concert, play or movies might be able to help the body politic in reaching the audience of many.
Who set up this system? The members of
God’s inner circle would also hold some power as being useful towards getting things done in the realm of prayer.
How powerful is prayer anyway? Is prayer just one of many things I would do, a lineup of things I could do? Taking maybe part of a scene over the landscape that I am observing or is it an infinite landscape involving the totality of everything I am observing.
I could imagine a prayer extending into the distant sky, although I do believe God is as close as the breath I take. In effect, we believe we are doing that when we send say prayers for someone say in India from the States. But God is also as close to them as the breath they take. No matter who you are praying for, or where they are, or who they know, God is the closest to them. Including yourself, God is closer to you than you are to yourself.
Which brings to question what the proper vantage point for prayer is?
I am sitting here, looking across a waterway on a road about a mile or two away and those boats, trucks, and cars going by do look smaller than they would at a few yards distance. But that is only my perspective from this distance.
An observer of a low flying plane has another vantage point of a landscape than one could have obtained before the beginnings of manned flight. It might be advantageous and it might help in gaining perspective to obtain another vantage point. You could never see yourself as an objective observer from a distance, but it might at times be an advantage if you could say observe yourself from across a room talking to someone.
Sometimes an answer to a situation would involve the obtaining of additional vantage points.
Part of the reason for this is I might be following systems that have already been established and I put my trust in these systems. I’m following the lead of some system that is ahead of me, a new set up or the way things have been set up. I need to catch up and catch on.
An example of this might be the latest computer software system,. Another system might be that I go someplace, put hours on the clock in exchange for specific remunerations. This is seemingly represented as a safe corner, because it has some predictability, and I feel I am guaranteed by repeating this process, that I’ll continue to receive ample remuneration. Oftentimes, the work itself become like a pileup of cars on a highway, stagnation becomes normal, but this is seen as laudable because I’m involved in good old fashion work in the Spirit of the Pilgrims from all the way back then. Never mind that they were adventurous in what they did. They had a work ethic but it was coupled with adventure.
Soon, I am heavily invested in concepts such as these, and I begin to have the same views and vantage points on my prayer life or just how prayer might work. If I work at it, I’ll get better, and prayer is a labor of love, there is no disagreement about that. . A traffic jam in my prayer life might be a good sign, with work is piling up, I’ve go so much to do, how good of me to have this terrific work load, I must be an important member of the prayer community.
But from the vantage point of the power of prayer, what do I really know? Do I really know exactly what kind of push or effort I make towards prayer is bringing about in the realm of power? Do I really know where the multiplication of the loaves is in this prayer?
The disciples made the request of helping feed the flock. One request resulting with the multiplication of the loaves in that very scene.
I might be viewing my prayers as laborious, lugging along the highway, fighting my way thru the traffic, while it might be like arising smoothly over an open highway with no obstacles at all. It might not be matter of desperate pleas that gets me the power, but one simple brief prayer said only once.
God may give it to you on the first throw.
Or I say I might need to pray for 3 hours, and at about 2 hours and 59 minutes the power gets turned on because I have made this effort.
Or I look for a method of praying which I feel comfortable with. Now I’ve got it made, I’ll just repeat the process, and the jackpot machine will return my paycheck. It will be just like putting money in the slots in the same way and in the same amounts.
But maybe I can obtain another view of God in prayer where I do indeed feel comfortable. There are instances where people have met someone that that had an instant comfort level with, in terms of conversation. God can be like that person for you. Most people can think of an instance to where this did happen to them, think back to that and not say a dreaded job interview when you are approaching God in prayer, imagine God being like that person you felt so comfortable with right away.
But does prayer reach to formula I can find. Since I am dealing with power, do I really know? If I can come to see the vantage point that prayer involves power, the how of it, there where of it, can’t easily be deciphered and diced. I can’t say if I repeat the same roll of the dice, that I’ll get the powerful result.
So I’m there, it’s not a matter in this case of earning points, I don’t have to march a million miles to earn God’s favor. It’s all there and right here. The view is clear right now. The sights are in my eyes.
God knows my situation. Proverbs Chapter 28 verse 11 “The rich is wise in self-esteem, but the intelligent poor person sees through the pose." If the intelligent poor person sees through a pose, then God sees through a pose as well. A full pocket doesn’t necessarily get me a better hearing with God.
I might be praying and looking past the point of arrival. From Romans Chapter 9 we see it’s a matter of God’s mercy. I come into prayer either under God’s mercy or not. I can pray to an effect only if God’s mercy is there. If I don’t have God’s mercy I need to ask for forgiveness and try not to offend Him in the future. And even then it all comes down to Gods mercy. I want to tend the garden of faithfulness, it is still up to God, I can’t force the hand of God upon my life in a certain way or with a given situation. So often it is good to use the word if in prayer, God if you do this, I’ll be willing to do that. This is okay, because there really is an if factor here.
I was involved in a discussion on prayer, and posed the question, is in really okay to focus a prayer life on asking for material things, or things we might consider ourselves a bit selfish in asking for. The one girl said, it is okay to ask for these things, which might be given" if He finds it suitable" I really like this particular wording because, some things are suitable for some people and maybe what you are asking for is not outside the realm of suitability for you, therefore it wasn't selfish to ask.
It is also helpful to ponder the here and now, gifts and possibilities currently in vogue, rather than focusing on what appears to be distant, or sketched for use in the far future.
If I can get myself right to the top of the Rockies, overlooking the Grand Canyon, I don’t have to look long to get it. I don’t have to look long to see the sights. There is immediacy to the vantage point. I am there looking at the Grand Canyon and the Colorado river below and its right before my eyes right now. I have the exact vantage point I wanted. It is right here just as God might be right here. Do I really have to go further than this then? And sometimes I have to say I really don’t have to go further in a prayer if what I want is right there and I’m seeing it. At the point that I am seeing things within prayer, is the best point I will ever get on the situation.
I can have the vantage point of hey, I’m looking at the Grand Canyon now, I am reading the novel I want now,. I am talking to a person I want to talk to now, I have no need now to arrive further down the road.
No games, no charades, its here. Just like I can’t go further to look at the Grand Canyon, I don’t need to go further for particular views when I am praying. There is such a thing as stopping to smell the roses in prayer to. Then, there is nothing I can do in this life, which goes past praying in terms of distance, I can’t go any further than that.
But we know prayer is a matter not just of words but also of power. There is a double effect, a double turn out, to answered prayer. One is that that prayer is answered in a way we can discern only through God’s witness. That witness shows both presence and power, an answered prayer is a demonstration of both presence and power.
Often God is helping us to another vantage point. The view we have is inhibited. I cannot see the Grand Canyon and God wants me to see it. In the case of the future, it has to be from the vantage point of the present, a present where I can’t see into the future. I could never get the full vantage point of a decision I make now and see its resonance exactly as it will unleash itself into the future. I have only the present before me, while God sees to the future and from the future, as well as from the past. Those pictures I saved from the past, God still has them.
God has the advantage in all the games, and if I can get closer to him in prayer for myself, I am getting closer to He who has all the advantages. I'm not going to lose an advantage on anything I want by going to prayer. I'm not going to be on a lesser point on my goals by praying about them.
Within this closeness, I enter into the prayer relationship, which always represents an oasis, the one place I can go to no matter what else is closed or what particular desert I happen to be in now in my life. Prayer is the one door I can always open, hopefully it will not be the last door I try. . As it says in the Psalms 32, the Lord is my hiding place, and a hiding place does not signal the end. I am not fooling God, showing him only the best cards in my deck, I am not trying to earn my way in,. There is no place else I can go, as far as hiding goes.
Jonah couldn’t escape God, by sea or land. But neither can you or I escape the call to prayer. That dove rests on my shoulders. I can’t come to a vantage point where I am free from this call. Chance and circumstance change as they will, but the only real constancy is the eternal God, who calls me to the prayer relationship always now. It is not my aunt, my uncle, MTV or the partly line, or past or future that calls me into the relationship.
There is also an eternal hope, because God said he will be your hiding place, I can always hide then. Even if the earth itself vanishes, I still have provisions for this hiding place. Jesus said, I’ll never leave you. If you really feel this way, you might ask God, why did you leave me, where is the answer I need. You said you would never leave me, but I feel that way now, that you did leave me. You left me in this trial, you left me in this turmoil, you left me in this fog, and in this confusion. Jesus will never walk way from a true prayer relationship. If anyone does the leaving, it is me who will say goodbye. If you seem to be in a dry season with prayer, where the prayers seem to be bouncing back to no effect, I might ask God, are you here? You said, you would never leave me?
There isn’t going to be a lock out on prayer by God’s doing. I am not going to get a thousand rings on the phone before God picks up. I don’t have to be the most articulate person on the planet for Him to hear my voice. I don’t have to be the richest, the smartest, the best, the nicest, the kindest, and all those other good things, before I can lift my voice in prayer to God. So don’t wait until you feel ready for prayer. Pray now while you’re not ready and later if you are ready. You can start the process before you find your way on anything or everything else. Prayer is always going to be a process, and this process shouldn't be hindered by all else that is going on. If I have faltered, I can still pick up on this process now. In reality, I do believe that I am going to get to the best point of the situation by praying. I can pray in the beginning of anything, at the end of anything, or in the middle of anything. Do I hold off on my next breath for the perfect quality air? So I look for the better vantage points then, more firmly realizing when I do have them, if I am overlooking the Grand Canyon then I’m seeing what I want to see, I have the vantage point, I’m there. But if I feel my vantage point is lousy, it stinks, then I can still harbor myself to my hiding place, I can still pray now. I’ll never leave you, means, I’ll never leave you even when you are confused, lost, and lonely and can’t see your way. He didn’t say I’ll never leave you except when you are failing.
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