"The Simplicity of Prayer"

By definition, genuine prayer as taught in Scripture ushers us into a blessed grace of simplicity.

First, we come to God in the confidence of His wisdom and knowledge, and in the confession of our lack thereof.

"His understanding is infinite... To God only wise be through Jesus Christ forever... we know not what we should pray for for as we ought" (Psalm 147:5; Romans 16:27).

Regarding what needs to happen in those matters about which we pray, we need not be overly detailed because our understanding of the details is so limited. We rather ask God to work according to His perfect knowledge of every aspect of the requests we bring to Him. This often pares down our words, even as it increases the requisite humility and faith of our heart and attitude. Rather than tell the Lord what we think He needs to do - which is so often misguided - we rather trust Him to do what He knows needs to be done.

We also come in the acknowledgement of need for God's wisdom regarding our role in the situations our prayers address. How easily we scratch the wrong itch, as it were, and thus make bigger messes of troubles because we act according to our own faulty understanding. We do well in prayer to consecrate ourselves to the heart and hand of our Heavenly Father, trusting Him to guide our thinking and decision making regarding the actions of our hands and feet. Thereby we act according to strength, God's strength, because we lay aside our frantic troublings of mind in order embrace the faithful trusting of heart whereby we are led by the Holy Spirit.

Finally, such simplicity of prayer causes communion with God to be far more real, and thus far more likely on a consistent basis. Certainly our Heavenly Father would not have His trusting children in Christ to view prayer as a burden to be borne, but rather as a gift to be received, enjoyed and practiced as a beloved experience of our relationship with Him. Burdens may surely lead us to pray, and just as surely will be unloaded from our hearts as the simplicity of true prayer graces our hearts with the rest and reality of God's living presence with and within us.

"Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."

(Proverbs 3:5-6)

"Need To Know"

One of the most beautiful things about relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ involves the mystery of it. Certainly we can know enough to enter the relationship, to increasingly experience it, and to have great expectation that present blessedness assures us of future glory. We deceive ourselves, however, if we expect in this lifetime to arrive at a place wherein we can declare with finality and completion, "I've got it!"

For everything we know about the bond between God and ourselves, an immeasurable potential of glory waits to be discovered and applied. What is His role? What is our role? We will never fully find answers in this lifetime. Again, we can know enough to live abundantly in the Lord Jesus, and we should expect to do so as the Holy Spirit works in us to conform us to the image of Christ. Nevertheless, the infinite nature of God unites with our present limitations to maintain mystery as an ongoing aspect of our relationship with God.

Such mystery will always be uncomfortable to our flesh, which desires the absolute knowledge and certainty known only by God. We long for some new insight, teaching, or discipline whereby the discomfiting fact of our imperfection is somehow eliminated, or at least suppressed to the degree that we no longer sense our inherent human weakness. Certainly our Lord would have us grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus, and a more consistent experience of His involvement should be expected. However, our human frailties do not dissolve in our Lord's presence, or by His working in us. They rather become His holy means of preparing us to trust Him, and to avail ourselves of His strength "made perfect in weakness" (II Corinthians 12:9).

We must adjust ourselves to this reality, and the mystery of our relationship with God. He presently has us on a "need to know" basis. That is, whatever light we require to consistently trust and obey Him, and whatever brings genuine and contagious peace to our hearts, our Heavenly Father provides in much abundance. Further illumination, however, can wait until we are better equipped to receive it. Recognizing this present need for both the known and unknown will go far in enabling our assimilation of light given, and our acceptance of mysteries which remain...

"The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." (Deuteronomy 29:29)

"It Came To Pass"

The phrases "come to pass" or "came to pass" occur 618 times in the Bible. A clear message or lesson presents itself to us in this frequent Scriptural reminder that "the fashion of this world passeth away" (I Corinthians 7:31).

In this life, nothing stays the same except the reality that nothing stays the same. We may long for continuity, and seem to get it for awhile. But only for awhile. God Himself constituted our present existence to be fleeting because a sinful, fallen world is no place to plant the stakes of an eternal tent. The strong tendency of our fleshly tendencies, including those of even godly believers, tends toward the idolatry of worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). A state of flux rather than permanence helps us to overcome such temptation. Change and loss are therefore our friends (although they often don't seem very friendly).

Anything that loosens our grip on dust so that we may "lay hold on eternity life" benefits us (I Timothy 6:19). The shifting sands of a fallen world under our feet constantly press us to "set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2). We therefore do well to expect uncertainty about tomorrow, as determined and allowed by our loving Heavenly Father whose constant concern for our benefit is the one constant in our lives. "I am the Lord; I change not" (Malachi 3:6). Looking to anyone or anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ for security and stability is a fool's game. Looking to Him is the saint's gaze, and the only hope of peace and permanence we will ever find. Thus, we do well to give thanks that all things in this world "come to pass" in order that we may rejoice in the One who comes to remain.

"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)