Stop being a good person: Pray instead

We have been looking at the necessity to stop being a "good person" and instead finally become the follower of Jesus that we are supposed to be.  Good people get admiration and acclaim here on earth, but when they die, they are shut out of Heaven.  Why?  Because they never knew God at all.  See my previous posts "The Tale of the Really Good Man" and "Are you a really good person?" for more information and personal guidance on these topics.

Maybe you have realized you are a good person and need to know God instead. But how do you get back to Him?  Today lets look at your prayer life.  How has that been lately?  Prayer is our way of sitting at the feet of Jesus and taking Him in.  I can't imagine that Mary sat at the Lord's feet and was bored or looking at her watch.  She was really seeking Him and wanting to know Him better.  And He was right there for the taking.  One of the Bible promises I hold closest to in prayer is this one:

Jeremiah 29:12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 

How do you seek someone that you love?  You probably call them, or text them, or go to where they are.  In prayer we are doing that very thing.  Effective prayer, I have found, involves recognizing who God really is and how great He is.  You and I don't have to travel to some specific place to meet with God either.  We can do it at home, on our back porch, or even sitting in a closet.  The point is not the location.  The point is in the seeking.  I personally have had major encounters with God on mountaintops, in my office at home, and even while driving.  When my heart earnestly seeks God, I have found Him no matter where I personally am located.

Ask yourself this: if you get nothing from praying other than finding God and feeling His presence with you, is that enough for you?  That should be our goal when we pray, not getting a huge to-do list in front of God and asking Him to answer each of those things.  The Psalms masterfully convey this kind of love relationship, including Psalm 116:

1 I love the Lord because he hears my voice

    and my prayer for mercy.

2 Because he bends down to listen,

    I will pray as long as I have breath!

Here the Psalmist indicates that his love for God is based upon the fact that God hears him, responds, and makes an intentional effort to listen.  A real encounter with God leaves you breathless like that, regardless of whether you have an answered prayer or not.

Let's go back to human relationships for a second to better understand this seeking dynamic.  If you are seeking someone you deeply love or admire, you go to them, you sit with them, you talk and listen, and the blessing is just being with them in their presence.  If you really care for a person, you walk away from an encounter with them feeling good simply because you were with them.  It is no different in prayer.

Effective prayer also involves real confession of my sins.  I hold nothing back!  I don't know about you but many times I have avoided talking about my sins with God for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes it is shame;  other times it is a sense of wanting to hide from them.  But you and I have to come to grips with the fact that NOTHING is hidden from God.  He already knows what we did.  We confess it because in doing that we are agreeing with God that it is wrong, we acknowledge the division we created between us and Him in doing that action, and we seek to restore relationship with him.

What kinds of things drive a wedge in relationships you have with other people?  The list can be quite long!  Selfishness, envy, betrayal, lying, and deceit area all good places to start with our list.  When we do one of those things against a friend or a spouse, it is wrong for sure.  We know in our heart that lying to another person is wrong.  But what is the ultimate outcome from lying when it comes to the other person?  It messes up the relationship.  If the other person knows you did it, it is hurtful to them and makes them trust you less.  If they don't know about it, your own guilt will make you pull away from them in shame and doubt, and may make you question whether they have done the same thing to you.  The ultimate result of sin is exactly the same:  separation from God.  It was your sin that Jesus took on while He was on the cross, and that made even his Father turn away from him.  You and I therefore must regularly confront the sin in our lives, admit it to God, and seek to restore our relationship with Him through repentance.  

Effective prayer also involves thanking God for the things he is doing or has brought into my life.  Few things lift your spirit like thankfulness, and doing that toward God is a double blessing.  I remember one time at work we asked our staff to write a statement or two about someone else, listing reasons why they are thankful for that person.  They then gave their written response to the other person.  People, including myself, hung onto those statements because it made us feel good.  And I personally felt really good in writing them down because it focused me on things I have to be thankful for.  With God, we have A LOT to be thankful for.  He has blessed you in countless ways, from simply his presence in your life all the way down to many material blessings.  Thank him for those things regularly as part of your prayer life.  Yes, it will make you feel good to do that, and it also acknowledges in your own mind how active God has been in your day to day.  Try it and you will see that God will become much bigger in your mind than you previously had thought He was.

And finally, present your SPECIFIC requests to God.  In churches nowadays we freqently pray general prayers like "Lord please bless us" or "Lord be with us."  And yet we don't speak to our closest friends or spouses in that manner.  When we speak to them, or ask for something from them, we ask specifically.  We also should do that with the Lord.

This reminds me of how Jesus spoke about it.

Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

To receive something specific, we must ask for something specific.  If I want to borrow a saw from my neighbor, I don't go ask him for a "yard tool."  I ask for a saw.  If I want more time with my spouse, I ask for a date with her instead of just saying "I miss you."

To get someone to open a door, I have to knock on the door to let them know I'm there.  If I am looking for a specific person, I don't go to a random home and knock on their door.  I go to the house where the person lives.

Doing these actions through prayer is the best way to seek and find Jesus.

And finally, Jesus told us what would happen as a result of our prayers.  

9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 

He says that we will receive "good gifts" because we have a Father who cares for his children.  Have you received good gifts from the Lord?  I think of things that he allowed in my life that I didn't need at all.  I have always wanted to live by a lake and also near the ocean.  Without praying for those things, the Lord allowed both for a time!  What a blessing!  

How about with you?  What good gifts do you have in your life that are from God?  They might be the blessing of other people, material blessings, or some basic needs that have been met recently.  Those all are good gifts.  But I need to point out that the example that Jesus used, daily bread (if your son asks for bread), is a need for daily life. The two basic needs in the Bible are food and clothing.  We should take our requests to God, in particular the things that if He does not provide them, there is no way they will be available in our lives.  This was not Jesus's invitation for us to ask Him to win the lottery, or provide that big house or car we've always wanted.  Sometimes God allows those things in our lives, but none of us can say we need them and we should not be seeking them, because that is materialism and it is an idol.  Instead, we should be presenting those seemingly simple things to God that we truly need, and we should thank Him when they are provided!

What are those things for you?  What are those things that you really need that only God can provide?  Pray about them today, but in particular, seek the Lord.  Be quiet and still before Him and just try to find Him in prayer today.  And my prayer for you will be that you find Him, and find Him immediately!