Pray With Your Eyes Open

Lately, I've been skipping around and reading different books on different days during my quiet time with God.  The problem is that I still struggle to actually be "quiet" before the Lord.  I struggle to "be still" and know he is God.

Last week, I grabbed this book off the shelf that I read in college.  My college roommate, Mandy, and I held a Bible study at our apartment for a couple semesters.  This is one of the books we read:  Pray With Your Eyes Open by Richard Pratt.

Here's a quote nugget that I've gained from reading the first chapter again.  And yes, I just used the term Quote Nugget :)

"When we view prayer primarily as a duty, our failure to pray leads to guilt.  This guilt, in turn, makes talking with God even more difficult.  To avoid this downward spiral, we should stop viewing prayer solely as an obligation and see it also as essential for life."

I thought I'd do one of the exercises to get my mind in the right frame this morning as I head back to work.  

List three areas in your life in which you find it easy to forget how much you need God's help.  Describe why you need God in these areas.  

Marriage

• I need God's help in my marriage because it is an earthly picture of Christ's relationship with us; because when left to my own devices, I act in selfish ways.  I need his help to be encouraging to my husband. I also need help loving someone else more than myself; it's not a natural inclination.  With God's help I know I will have a much better attitude toward Mike which in turn will point him to Christ as well.

Finances

• I need God's help with my finances because I have to know that every monetary thing we have is ultimately HIS.  It's so easy to forget that he's given us all we have--our jobs, our intelligence to obtain and maintain those jobs, our current living situation. Even when we think about buying this house, it's all in his hands.  I need his help to I need help remembering not to be selfish with money.  I need help remembering not to be frivolous with money.  I need help trusting that God is in control no matter what the bank account looks like.  I need help remembering that it's ALL HIS.

Relationships

• I need God's help in my relationships because it's easy for me to be selfish.  I can often neglect people to do petty things  like watching Netflix. Often times it takes so much effort to reach out and be the one to plan something or make that phone call.  I get tired and complacent.  I need his help to be confident in who he created me to be, and reach out to others beyond my comfort zone.  I need God's help because relationships take a of energy and commitment.  Real relationships mean give and take; sacrifice as well as fun.  I need help caring for and maintaining the relationships in my life. 

All in all, God has not forgotten about me.  His spirit is here to comfort me.  The Holy Spirit is there to remind me over and over that I am in Christ.  Pastor Mike talked yesterday about how the Accuser (Satan) is constantly trying to make us feel unworthy and  not good enough to receive God's grace.  He's right; we aren't.  That's why what JESUS did for us is so incredibly overwhelming!  God now sees us through the lens of what Christ did.  He sees us as redeemed and covered by the blood of the perfect lamb and sacrifice.  So when I view prayer as a duty, I've got it ALL wrong!  

"Therefore, there is now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you^[a] free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,^[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.^[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh,⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:1-4