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Conversation with God
Carrying on a conversation with someone you cannot see, and whose existence you accept by faith, might seem unusual to some. Yet, prayer is at the heart of every major religion, and even those who claim not to believe in God often admit that under certain circumstances they pray as well. Some say prayer is a universal instinct. So what is this thing, this experience, we call prayer.
Some suggest that prayer is the human instinct to reach out for help based on an awareness of the existence of God. We are all born with the impulse to prayer. But what Christian prayer offers to us is not just a way to satisfy this impulse, but a way of responding to a particular understanding of God, a particular God who relates to us in a unique way. The way is found in scripture, and is in response to God's amazing love and grace.
In a unique, Christian way, prayer is our response to what the God revealed in Jesus speaks to us. So prayer involves listening to what this God says, and responding with our whole selves, with our lives. Even in prayer, listening is primary.
Prayer is primarily response, not initiation. While we bring everything that is on our hearts and minds to God, it is always in response to Who God is, and what He has said to us. Prayer is not a way to get God to respond to us, but to invite us to respond to God, to be changed, and to see things from God's perspective. God acts in response to our prayers, but our prayers are first in respond to Him. This is why listening always comes first. That is what Pastor Jon explores with us this morning.
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Hebrews 4:12
NIV
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.
John 1
NIV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
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