Closeness With God预览

> Prayer

Prayer has been dubbed as the key way in which we communicate with God. But how do we make sure we don’t just bring shopping lists to Him? How have you ensured that chatting with God is more of a two-way discussion and not just a download of how you’re feeling right now?

Devekut is that ability to restrain and progress all at the same time. It means to cling to God and abide in Him.

Any friendship that has one person doing all the talking will be starved of intimacy. There needs to be some restraint in order to progress the friendship.

Q. In what ways could you restrain your talking (praying) to God in order to progress your friendship with Him?

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done” (Philippians‬ ‭4:6,‬ ‭NLT).‬‬

“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him” (Matthew ‭6:7-8,‬ ‭NLT‬‬)!

How do you not worry about anything and pray about everything but not babble on with too many words?

The original Hebrew language was influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphics, which are like word pictures. So, a word was made up of letters, or pictures that told a bigger story.

Prayer in Hebrew is Tefillah, and there are 3 word pictures to describe prayer. It was a picture of the front of the head, the back of the head, and the head of an ox going into a wooden yoke.

These letter pictures string together to tell a story of how prayer is when you turn your head to face the one who bears your burdens.

No doubt God wants to hear from you but He also just wants to be with you. Like any friendship, God wants to enjoy spending time with you. So prayer can’t (only) be about me doing all the talking. There has to be some space for God to talk back and for me to listen. Sometimes there just needs to be space, and neither of us talking, but just being together. Jules and I often spend time together where we don’t use words, we just "be" together.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, help me to slow down and just be with You. Please fill me with Your Peace, and still my mind, so I can just be in Your Presence. There are many things that can weigh me down so help me turn my head and face the One who wants to carry my burdens - which is You.

Let it be so, Amen.