Okay, now I will fill in the first bullet point of When, Where, and How we Speak to God:

·        When we Speak to God - should not only be confined to a set time but should be a continual relationship with our Father through Jesus Christ – we continue the conversation and keep it going throughout our day by speaking and listening in a living relationship.

a.1       When: When He Says “Come”

a. 2      When: Pray Always

Check out this poem by Charles Wesley on praying all the time (emphasis mine):

TALK WITH US, LORD, REVEAL THYSELF

Talk with us, Lord, Thyself reveal,

While here o’er earth we rove;

Speak to our hearts, and let us feel

The kindling of Thy love.

With Thee conversing, we forget

All time and toil and care;

Labor is rest, and pain is sweet,

If Thou, My God, art here.

Thou callest me to seek Thy face;

‘Tis all I wish to seek;

To attend the whispers of Thy grace,

And hear Thee only speak.

Let this my every hour employ,

Till I Thy glory see;

And enter into my Master’s joy,

And find my heaven in Thee.

Amen.

Charles Wesley, 1740

The following verse shows us that we can seek God early in the day and late in the night and all the time in between "while I live."

PSALM 63:1-7  “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee:  my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.  Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.  Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.  My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:  When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.  Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.”

My earthly example:

My mother was the first to teach me to pray.  She prayed all the time: while walking, sitting, lying down, cooking, cleaning, on the phone, in person, in the store, on the bus, with everyone she met, when we came to her, in the car, when she was happy or sad, and always “In the Name of Jesus”.  It was an all day relationship and she brought others along with her, including us children.  Prayer can bring others into relationship with God.

When your children come to you and bring them into prayer with your Father, you are letting them in on your relationship with Him. They are seeing that you have a living relationship with God and they are invited to join in. Soon enough, they will know how to have that same kind of continual relationship with their Father just by watching you and being invited to join you in prayer. 

A Consistency

Jesus went aside to pray “as was his custom”.  I had to ask myself, do I make it my "custom" (or other versions say "habit") to pray?

What is the benefit of this consistent time with God? When we become consistent, we begin to really know God and begin to hear His voice and His direction for our lives.

There have been times where I prayed only occasionally and they were the “Help Me” prayers.  At those times, meeting God in prayer for me was like dieting.  What I mean by this is that in dieting I might say, “I am having a hard time getting the weight off.”  In fact, the weight would come off if I would just stick to a diet!  Likewise when I say, “I’m having a hard time hearing God.”  In fact, I would hear and know if I would just take the time and effort to really converse with Him! 

There was a time in my life that I prayed for God to take away my sin of anger.  Yet, I continued on in the battle.  I was seeking an answer rather than seeking The Answer.  Like the weight, the anger would just not come off.  He loved me in spite of myself, which created a desire in me to be with Him.  As I spent time with Him, I began to want to please Him in my actions and reactions.  I repented of my sin, started interceding for others, and made my needs known in a controlled and consistent manner.  Not just those desperate pleas for help anymore. As I became consistent, then, I began to see a change in my behavior.  I believe this was for two reasons.  One, I sought after God more intensely and prayed more consistently, thereby knowing Him better and having at the forefront of my mind the desire to please Him.  Second, as I prayed throughout the day, I would gently hear God’s instructions, and I began to obey, thereby putting away wrath and the sin that we get so easily tangled in.

                 Pray Anytime/All the Time, PLUS Have a Consistent Time

a.2       Where

We can obviously pray anywhere – we are not confined to a physical place - rather prayer can take place in our Hearts or in our Closets

Sometimes my prayer closet has been in my heart.  When I’m the midst of the crisis, and I cannot get away, my heart cries out.  Sometimes we may not physically be able to find a quiet alone place except in our inner being.  We can meet God there for this is where He dwells.  We can meet Him as we work and as we are in the midst of others because it is in Him that we live and move and have our being.  In other words, our relationship with our Father should not stop because we have left our quiet place.  In fact, I find that I need Him even more so as I go about my day, so I want to keep up the conversation. I want to keep talking and listening as I go about serving Him and those He's given me.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God.  Our very bodies are the dwelling place of God’s glory.  The story of Jesus and the moneychangers is relevant to us today.  This temple we call our own is to be a house of prayer, not a den of thieves; in other words, a place of petitioning God and communing with Him, rather than a focus on selling our wares - or for us moms - selling our agenda of what has to happen. Our temples should be a place of seeking God rather than seeking the things of this world.  We should pray that He would drive away those things that shift our focus to something other than prayer, just as he drove away those that were taking the focus off of why people were coming to the temple. 

How/What to pray

We should pray for our spiritual senses to be awakened in prayer.  Touch:  We don’t necessarily need a fresh touch from God, as He is always reaching out to us, rather, we need to touch God afresh, as we are so rarely touching Him.  Jesus said to Thomas, “Touch me”.  Doubt leaves our prayer life when we touch Jesus in prayer.  See:  We have eyes, but see not.  We should pray that God would open our eyes to see Who He is and what He is doing.  To be like Jesus who said, “I only do what I see my Father doing.”  Hear:  We have ears, but hear not.  We should pray that God would open our ears to hear His still small voice, and to hear His Word speak to our hearts.  Smell:, and we also become the fragrance of Christ as we commune with Him. Taste:  O, taste and see that the Lord is good.  His commandments are more to be desired than gold, and sweeter than honey. Is this not reason enough to spend time in prayer, worshipping and praising Him?

a.4       What is the purpose?

Exalting Our Father

To lift up who God is.  To call upon Him by name – His many differing names and attributes.  We could pray this way for hours and not even get to anything else in prayer.  But it gives us the right perspective in prayer when we exalt Him first.  Rather than the focus being on our needs, we focus on His ability to meet our needs.  This kind of praying brings us into relationship with Him. Jesus taught us to pray, saying first, "..Hallowed be Thy Name"

Becoming His Friend

Sometimes we have a photograph mentality instead of a living relationship.  For example, if we get a picture in the mail of a family that we don’t know very well, we think about how nice they all look in their color coordinated clothes and their hair neatly set and their general outward appearance.  Yet, if we are intimately acquainted with them, we look past just the picture into the soul of the others – who they really are and how that picture is just a representation of their vibrant living personality.

How does God view us?  He does not look merely on the outward appearance, but He looks on the heart.  How do we see God?  Do we see God in a flat photographic image or do we see his multidimensional beauty, personality, and His very heart.  This comes with spending time getting to know who He really is.

Many of us want to be considered righteous, so we do the right things, don’t do the wrong things and consider all things in light of righteousness.  This is good, but I believe there is even better. It is this: that we become friends of God.  To know Him intimately, personally, that His thoughts would be our thoughts, that we would be one with Him.  That we would be the closest of friends.  For Abraham was a friend of God and it was accounted unto Him for righteousness.  Yet, we have the tendency to seek goodness instead of seeking God.  Let us seek God, and we will find Goodness.

There should be no condemnation or guilt regarding our prayer life if our praying springs up out of love in our hearts towards God.  If it is a duty we neglect, then we may feel guilt.  A relationship should not be a duty to perform.  We don’t say to our spouses, “I will speak to you for 20 minutes every morning, but don’t expect me to talk to you the rest of the day, as I am dreadfully busy with very important things that need to get done.”  On the contrary, we desire a relationship where communication of anything and everything can be shared at anytime.  It is not a duty to speak to our husbands, we desire to because of our love for them and because we seek their direction, wisdom, and counsel, and because we want to share all the happenings of our day and innermost thoughts of our hearts.  Our husbands are not perfect and cannot always understand this need for communication, but our Father desires it and wishes us to come to Him so He can bestow on us His direction, wisdom, counsel and His great love.  Only He can meet our inmost needs in prayer and communion.

“Be clear minded and self-controlled so that you are able to pray.” Time is not our own – watch and pray.

Seeking His Purpose

When we come into relationship with Him, we seek God for His purposes.  Now that we know Who He Is, we know that whatever He asks us to do, we will be empowered by Him to do.

We come apart to Him to be set apart for Him

We sanctify (set apart) ourselves to be used for His purposes.

Do you think this is good stuff? It can be life changing for your spiritual walk. Stay tuned for the next part coming soon!