My Pastor spoke a sermon recently on Luke 24:13-34, Jesus on the road to Emmaus. My Pastor entitled the sermon The Road with God. And he said this passage was a picture of how God can be with us; walking with us on life’s road. Point two from his outline was God Listens to Man. God cares; plain and simple. But to take it further, God invites us to talk to Him, to come into His presence.
Imagine the Creator of Heaven and Earth, inviting us to talk with Him. We can pray to Him.
Prayer is one of the most important parts of the Christian life. When we pray, we talk to the One who gives us life and holds us together, even when we feel we are falling apart.
Prayer is powerful; from the beginning of time, man has been talking to God. Bringing their requests and praises to the One who can do all things.
I think sometimes we forget the wonder of prayer. Prayer is not a chore or something to do before mealtime, travels, or during rough times. Prayer is talking to God. Telling Him everything, like you would a close friend. I have a few close friends whom I know I tell anything to; anytime something exciting, good, or bad happens, or when I need to complain or rant, I know I can tell them. We are often very quick to go to our friends, leaving God to come in second place in our order of friends to tell.
When we get mad, we immediately text our friend and rant away. When we are stressed, we go directly to that friend for sympathy. Where is God in all that? He is a second thought. God, is not a second-place Being. He deserves and should come first.
Our friends won’t always be available. God invites us 24/7, to come to Him with everything.
Did you know, that even in the Old Testament, people in the Bible prayed? And if you look closely, you will find they prayed for many different things.
Moses prayed for deliverance (Numbers 11:2)
Hannah gave praise through prayer (1 Samuel 2:1)
Daniel gave praise and confessed his wrongs (Daniel 6:10 & 9:4)
Jonah prayed from the belly of the fish (Jonah 2)
Paul and Silas prayed and gave praise while in prison (Acts 16:25)
Even Jesus prayed (Matthew 26:39)
This is where we should be amazed. From the days of Abraham and Moses, we’ve been praying to the same Almighty God.
First off, is that not amazing? That we can pray to the same God Moses and David prayed to? And what’s even more amazing is that God wants to hear from us, He wants us to come to Him for every request and praise.
When you think about praying, you could think about praying for something big or major. We don’t often think about asking or praying for something we consider minor.
But we can bring to God everything, every little detail that concerns us, God wants us to bring it all to Him.
Feeling grumpy? Tell Him.
Found the exact change you needed? Praise Him.
Can’t find your keys? Ask Him.
I don’t know how many times I was looking for something, could not find it, and I prayed, asking God to show me, and He did.
God is a personal God. He knows the pains we go through. He knows when we misplace our keys and glasses or marbles. He knows when we are tired and reached our limit, and when we need rest. He even knows every secret or skeleton in our closet, and yet He still wants us to come to Him and rely on Him for every area of our lives.
Hebrews 4:16 says that we can come boldly to the Throne of Grace. We can come to the Throne of Grace and talk to God. When we pray, we are talking to God.
How many people in a day do you talk to? We have conversations with many people.
In the same way, we can have conversations with God, and we can talk to Him throughout the day. Often, we think prayer is a hard or complex thing to do, but it’s the same as having a conversation with a good friend or your Mom.
And there is no one else that always wants to hear from us. He’s always there and ready to hear from us. He is the closest friend you will ever have.
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