TALKING THINGS OVER WITH GOD
Like all of us, you've called upon the name of the Lord in quiet desperation -- this is prayer.
The scriptures are a guide to restore relationship with God. Relationships are based on trust. If we cry out to God and the crisis remains unresolved, we may feel like God is deaf or that He doesn't care. Most likely this is the time our conscience kicks in and we feel guilt as memories flash before us of times when we knew full well that what we were doing was wrong.
Having said that, there is hope! God wants a two-way relationship. We've all made the mistake of making our prayers one sided. Right?
So here's the deal. We need to first practice what we desire most from God. We want God to hear our prayers. Yes? God's prayers to us are called scriptures and they are recorded in the holy Bible. By the way the word holy simply means "Set Apart". Before God will hear our prayers He merely asks that we set apart time to relate with Him alone. There is so much noise in the world and so many distractions. To pray effectively we need to quiet our hearts and minds while resting in the truth that God is present no matter where we go or what we're doing.
Seriously, listen carefully to God's prayer as follows: "If ... My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal" (2 Chronicles 7:14).
God gave us a man named Moses to set an example. Moses failed repeatedly and on one occasion God was going to kill him as follows: "Now it came about on the way at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him [Moses] and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet, and she said, "You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me." So He [God] let him alone. At that time she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood -- because of the circumcision" (Exodus 4:24-26).
Indeed Moses failed. What's worse than failing is failing at failing. What we mean is failing repeatedly having not learned from our mistakes. So even though God was going to kill Moses at one time, it is only said of Moses as follows: "Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" (Deuteronomy 34:10).
Seek My Face. Three words speak volumes. Moses knew God face to face. Look into the sky and imagine that you see God's face in the clouds. Ask yourself, "Where's He looking? What's His expression?" In the past we thought that God was looking at us, and yet we realized that He is actually looking at you. That is He's looking at you because you are new to our endeavor at THE HIGHER PLACE. What we mean is that He is inspiring us to reach out to you and make you feel right at home. So we want to pray for you! Scriptures say, "Again I [Jesus] say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My name, I am there in their midst" (Matthew 18:19-20).