… teach us to pray … — Luke 11:1
Real prayer requires two things:
1. The real God
2. The real you
One night a couple years ago, I was telling my then 9-year-old son that if we really knew God – if we went to heaven and saw Him and experienced Him in all His glory, nothing would ever frighten us again. No one could threaten or do anything to us that would ever scare us, no matter how mean or cruel they might be. I say that because connecting with the real God is more than just connecting with the theologically correct God (although that, too, is important). We seek after the God who is there.
Pretense and performance never work in the presence of God. He knows us. So we must make the journey of honesty and courage and admit to God (and to ourselves) who we really are and what is really going on inside.
The good news is this: The real God plus the real you equals real change. Jesus touched the leper and made him clean.
One of the outcomes of encountering God in prayer is love. We love because He first loved us. Another is wisdom. Another is transformation. One day, I was praying for a ministry that was experiencing some problems. As I went to pray, I felt God speak to me and say, "Don’t pray for ministries. Pray for people." That was an important lesson for me. Ministries are temporary. People are eternal.
Be encouraged!
Dwight
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Dwight Clough is the author of four Christian books and is an active member of Lake City Church in Madison. This devotional is also available via email and you may review the archives back to 2002. To contact Dwight or Kim, use their contact form. You may also support their ministry.