it’s all prayer
Posted: January 10th, 2012 | Filed under: life | Tags: prayer, purpose | 12 Comments »Hard days make me think about prayer. My thoughts, in general, can be summed up in: “It’s all prayer.”
I say that because I don’t think my thoughts/questions/observations are anything but prayer. If prayer is a constant sort of ‘knowing that God is with you and always speaking and always listening’ then everything is prayer. Even if it’s just a silent knowing that makes your insides look up with a child-like look that says, “Am I doing this right?…Are you proud of me?”
Life is hard sometimes. It doesn’t even have to be the big things that make it hard. It’s the little things that can bully you into a corner.
As I write this, I’m at the end of a rough day. I’ve had some little things pick on me and I’ve been on my feet against them for hours now. I could pray that things get tied up or fixed, but I don’t usually do that. I think it’s because I believe that everything happens for a reason, …for a lesson. I would rather have the lesson. I would rather go through the process without tearing my fingernails on the walls.
Bad days don’t make me feel like I did something wrong, or that God has stepped away, or that Satan is winning. Bad days are just part of life and entirely based on perspective.
When Job was going through his thing, he didn’t give credit to Satan, even though Satan was the one attacking him. He gave credit to God, knowing that it was God who had the say so over his life. This is incredibly important to understand. Job’s friends blamed him and Job gave credit to God. At the end of Job’s story, when God finally joined the argument, He said that it was Job who was right.
When people reject the idea of God allowing Satan to attack you, it’s because they can’t see a ‘Good God’ doing something like that. People make bad choices under Satan’s attack, why would God allow that?
But, they’re looking at the wrong thing. They’re forgetting who God is. His sovereignty is indisputable. It’s so much to the point that you have to remind yourself that He can be trusted and that He’s good. Everything happens under His supervision. That means you’re safe with Him.
Only what you believe has the power to destroy you. This is true because only what you believe has the power to save you. If you are missing belief, you are destroyed no matter what you do or how good you are.
It’s more than believing He existed or even believing that He is the Son of God. It’s is believing what He did. You have to know what He did before you understand any other concept in the Christian faith.
Job didn’t give credit to Satan and because of that, he submitted his fate and every speck of hope and doubt leading up to it, to God. It was complete and total submission because Job knew who God really was. He told God, “Even if you kill me, I’ll still trust you.”
Do you know God like that?
The only time I can remember someone rebuking Satan was when Jesus said it with Peter. Jesus told Peter what was going to happen to Him during the crucifixion, Peter told Jesus that it would never happen. That’s when Jesus rebuked Satan.
He told Satan to ‘get behind’ Him. He said that Satan was an obstruction because he tries to get people to rely on their own understanding of God and not open up in submission to what is not able to be understood.
You cannot reason with the understanding of God. He’s God. He knows everything beginning to end. You cannot reason with that, you can only submit to that.
If God is in control, then your circumstances are God’s will. You can’t submit like that if you don’t know God like that.
Isn’t submission what prayer is? If you’re giving thanks, then you’re giving credit. If you’re asking for help, then you’re recognizing Who has control. Submission is prayer and if you know God, then you’re submitted. It’s impossible to not be. Therefore: It’s all prayer.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.-1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
