And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was. Genesis 1:9 (NIV)
Recently I decided to get away for a few days to enjoy some quiet time by myself and do a little writing. I prefer warmer weather rather than colder weather so I decided to go to the beach. When I was walking on the beach, I stopped to watch the waves come in and out on the sand. As I stood there, several thoughts crowded into my mind: God set the boundaries for this tide. The God who created the heavens and earth, the God who gathered all the water and separated the water from the land, is the same God who desires a relationship with me. How could this be? I found myself in awe of the One who set the boundaries for the surf. I could not help but tear up as I wondered why such a powerful God would desire quality time with me. Why would this same God ask me to talk with Him on a daily basis? And not only does He ask that I pray, but He provided the provision through Jesus for me to enter into His presence.
Prayer gives me the opportunity to enter into His presence, to praise Him, to seek His face and yes, to make my requests known. I often ask this question: If I truly believe that prayer allows me to enter into the presence of God, would I struggle to pray or would I struggle to stop praying? What I mean is would I ever want to leave His presence? I don’t think so!
I believe that one of the problems many people have concerning prayer is that they tend to allow prayer to be about getting in front of Jesus to go over a list of wants before rushing to the next thing on the day’s schedule. However, I have discovered that, for whatever reason, Jesus desires to communicate with us. Not because He needs us like we need Him, but because He wants us!
Communication is huge in any relationship, and I’m finding that I love Jesus more when I take time to share all that’s on my heart with Him. I’ve also found that if I take a few minutes to ask Jesus if He would like to talk to me, I enjoy our time even more. You may be surprised what will come in to your mind when you stop long enough to ask Jesus to share His heart with you. Let me say this for sure: you will find praying is much more than just asking!
