The other day, when I was in prayer, I had a revolutionary thought - so revolutionary that it must have been the Lord, because I never thought of it before in over 30 years of daily devotions.
First, the Lord reminded me that He, too, was looking forward to our daily time together. Though this wasn't a new idea, it warmed my heart. But then, a little later, as I was praying, I heard Him saying, "Why don't you give Me control over our time together?"
This really shocked me. As a young Christian I had learned about the necessity of daily Bible reading and prayer, and I had stuck to it fairly faithfully throughout the years. Since my strength is studying the Bible, I actually spent most of my time in Bible study, and comparatively little in prayer. Lately, I'd become so dissatisfied with my personal prayer life that I kept crying out to the Lord, "Teach me to pray!"
At first I hesitated. What would happen? Would I have to stop following my Bible reading plan which worked some days but not others? What if nothing happened? What would be my part? I did get the impression that my part was to continue showing up daily, faithfully, seeking Him with all my heart. But He wanted me to let go of my religious rituals and let Him take over.
The more I thought about His request to have control over our time together, the more it made sense. He is just as interested in our time together, and of the two of us He clearly is the senior partner, the One with more experience. He loved me, and I could trust Him. When I thought about Jesus meeting with the Father, I just couldn't picture Him spending all of His time talking and none listening.
Anyway, anytime the Lord asks you a direct question like this, you say yes. I did, excited to see what would happen.
Well, this has been a week ago. The main change so far has been that I'm spending a lot more time in prayer, even if I spend less time reading Jeremiah or Ezekiel. During some of my early-morning prayer time I'm reading a book by Lynne Hammand on spirit-led prayer called, "The Master Is Calling", which is exactly what I need right now. All of a sudden, since the Lord (Jesus, the Holy Spirit?) took over control over my quiet time, I'm spending time in real communion with Him, and prayer seems to flow out of it.
I'd like to invite you to consider giving over control of your time with the Lord to Him. It's an act of faith, a step of trust that He will not let you down. It doesn't mean you never get to talk again - in fact, one of the first things He said to me was, "Be honest with Me." Scripture confirms that we are to pour out our hearts to Him. I can't tell you what will happen if you take this step of surrender - it will be different for each of you. I only know it will be good.
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This is a great thing to do. I try to be balanced with prayer, Bible reading, worship and listening, but don't always succeed.
ReplyDeleteIt is a great idea to ask the Lord to lead our time with Him.
What I think is so cool is when He talks to me at times during the day. Recently He told me something very practical I should do to help me feel better.
I think when we spend time with Him each day we are open to hearing from Him. We need to have our ears open.
How cool that you have heard from the Lord about this and can bless others. And how awesome will your times with the Lord be. I look forward to hearing more about this.
By the way, isn't this interesting that this happened after you moved ? A new start in a new home and a new start with your daily time with the Lord !
It has a lot to do with my new church. I hadn't realized how stagnant I had become in my old church until recently. Now I'm being challenged to grow in a new way as I'm attending this church in my community.
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