Prayer is two-way communication with God
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Share to the group a statement or scripture that resonates with you from today’s reading and a responding prayer…
Prayer is two-way communication with God
p.110
Share to the group a statement or scripture that resonates with you from today’s reading and a responding prayer…
I was reminded of that fact that if I am not keeping a journal of God’s word, phrases or verses that stand out to me during each season of my life, I need to. This has been on my mind for a while now and I do enjoy writing down verses and Scripture messages that pertain to me each season of life. The Lord does speak to me through prayers and I know that full well now. By praying, I am talking to God, it’s as if I am talking to my friend but also the Lord God who saved me and gave me life. I believe that by constantly being surrounded in God’s word each day, my relationship with God would be closer and I would have a more personal experience with Him, obeying and trusting Him more each day.
Father, thank you for saving me and showing me what it means to hear and listen to Your voice. I pray that You would help me experience You deeper each day.
“God doesn’t need your prayers, but He wants you to pray because of what God wants to do in and through your life as you pray.” I’m reminded again tonight that God is always at work around me and that He uses prayer to reorient myself to Him and what He’s doing to grow my faith and bring glory to Himself. It’s my most underutilized form of communication with God as I simplify it to listing out my needs rather than paying more attention to what He’s saying to me. God, thank you for your Holy Spirit that intercedes for me and knows what I need. Help me to view and utilize prayer as a way to grow my relationship with You rather than for my own self seeking agenda
The message that was most prominent in today’s study was that “Prayer is two-way fellowship and communication with God”. I initially thought that prayer was merely a one-sided conversation with God where only I would speak to Him, giving Him thanks and listing everything that I hope God would do. However, this is obviously not the case. Today’s study made me realize that prayer also includes listening to what God says in prayer, which is much more significant than what I say. Moreover, God speaks to me in prayer through the Holy Spirit which uses the Word of God to align me and help adjust myself to the Lord. In response to today’s study, I must listen to the Word that God is speaking to me in prayer and apply His Truth to my heart so that I will be able to adjust my life to Him and solely desire to know God’s will.
From Charlie
It seems that lately, all my personal prayer to the Father is about how I would know whether He’s speaking with me. I worry that I’m not a good child and I am either unable to hear Him clearly or I’m willfully ignoring Him. The lesson is that we pray then we read the Words and we reflect on what it says and through the circumstances and the church (our brothers) we strive to understand His instructions. The author of “Experiencing God” assures us that it will be clear and ask us to be patient. Do His will and it will go fine. Try to do something, even if it is a “good” thing, on our own and it may have limited short term success but it will NOT be His will and ultimately it will fail. So be patient; build a relationship with God; pray and pay attention to what He’s saying and it will be clear when He speaks.
So I pray for myself, my usual prayer to know Him better and then I do the “random” Bible verse reading, and this comes up today:
‘For this is what the high and exalted One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.” ‘ (Isaiah 57:15)
God speaks…He is with us and is here to revive the spirit of those who repent and seek God. God is good!
Dear Father, I wait patiently for Your voice to be clear and Your instructions. Now that I got you here, Father, and I feel You are listening, I pray for my brothers, especially for brother Brian and his family who need to be strong in this difficult time; and for brother Don and his children who are also going through their own sad times; and I pray for our pastor Bumble and his family well being; and I pray for the RP and our community to come together to deal with all the recent difficulties. I pray we ALL hear Your Words clearly and we all experience a deeper relationship with You. Amen.
“Prayer includes listening.” This is true now that I think about it. I always assumed that the act of praying is just speaking to God, but I never considered that God would speak back too. I guess I likened it to talking to a cloud and thinking that was good enough for a relationship. But, its not, as it feels like I’m just speaking to something and getting no feedback. The reality of the situation, though, is much more responsive and requires an act of listening that I fail to do. Which is why I like the beginning of the passage talking about keeping a spiritual journal as I feel that recording my experience through prayer is a good first step into actually “listening” to God through prayer. For myself, I’m realizing that I need to do more on my end when praying to God as starting and stopping with “Dear God” and “Amen” is nothing more than just a conversation with myself. Rather than end on “Amen”, I need to listen to what God places on my heart, meditate, and respond through however He needs me to.