The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Why We Pray"
Part 2 - The Centrality of Relationship
"Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).
The delight God finds in our prayers, as considered in Part 1, stems from the fundamental nature of His relational being. Scripture alludes to this truth of God's essence in many ways.
"God is love… the Word was God… Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world...This is life eternal, that they might know Thee… To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (I John 4:8; John 1:1; John 17:3;24; Ephesians 3:19).
Before anything else existed, God dwelt in a unity of oneness, but also a plurality of three distinct Persons dwelling in living and loving relationship (I Timothy 2:5; II John 1:3; Hebrews 1:8; Acts 5:3). The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit comprise this eternal relationship as the only reality that has existed "from everlasting" (preceding the creation of angels, the universe, and human beings - Psalm 90:2). Before any tangible thing or created person came into being, a Relationship existed. Personally and infinitely fulfilled in one another, the three Persons of the godhead related in a mystery of loving devotion beyond all wonder and imagination. "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (John 17:5).
Such glory and truth should establish in our hearts the centrality of relationship in our understanding of God. In the light of such reality, we should not find it surprising that prayer, as blessed as it is to us, finds a far greater devotee in our Heavenly Father. He made us with the capacity for prayer. He calls us to pray, and equips us by His Spirit to genuinely respond. He involves us in His working in the world through prayer. He plainly states by His Word the delight He experiences in the prayer of the upright (Proverbs 15:8). We can draw but one conclusion: the relational centrality of God's own being constitutes the essence of who He is, and of who are as well. His calling to pray, and His delight in our prayers, confirms this wondrous truth.
So how do we respond to such wonder? First, by wonder itself. We must allow the truth to drive us to our knees and faces when its first ray of brilliance shines upon us. Nothing will more elicit such response than discovering the glory of God's relational Being, and the truth that He made us to respond. "When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek" Psalm 27:8). Why do we pray? Because through Christ, we can. Because through Christ, we must. Because through Christ, we will, as we increasingly discover the centrality of relationship in God and in ourselves. He made and redeemed us for this, and for the fellowship that has eternally existed in Him, and now dwells in all who trust the Lord Jesus…
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one. I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
(John 17:20-24)
"In Thy presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore."
(Psalm 16:11)
Weekly Memory Verse
By Him all things consist.
(Colossians 1:17)
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