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A Call To Prayer
By Brenda Walton
| I love to hear people pray, and I especially
enjoy the pure-hearted prayers of children. The honesty
and trust that I see in a child’s prayer is inspiring. I
like the thought that we can communicate with our Holy
Father anywhere and at any time. Praying alone
is a good thing, but praying with others is a precious gift, and God
calls us to do it. I want to thank our Pastor and our
Elders for calling us to a month of prayer in January. Our
Spiritual Leadership Team called us to seek God’s Face
in our personal lives and concerning our Church Family.
It was a special time of thinking about each member of
our church family and praying specifically for one another. |
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Grandsons Grant (4) and Lincoln (2) were visiting the other day when
I asked for someone to say the blessing for our lunch. Both of them
wanted to pray with great enthusiasm, and that must have been so pleasing
to our Father. Grant prayed a sweet blessing, very appropriate
for our lunch. Lincoln in his tiny toddler voice thanked Jesus
for pancakes and Muffi (me) and Poppi (Dickie). Disregard the fact
that we were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and not pancakes. God
was pleased with Lincoln’s grateful heart and his desire to
pray.
Four-year-old Gavin prayed recently concerning the
devastation from the earthquake in Haiti. Simply
put, he said, “Dear God, please help the people in Haiti find
each other.” I believe there were people united
there because of that pure-hearted prayer. Prayer is a powerful
privilege, and I am awestruck to think that an all-knowing, Almighty
God who is in control of all things takes the time to hear our
prayers and delights in our calling out to Him. God spoke to
my heart about several things during our month of prayer. He
blessed me with His loving conviction in areas I need to commit
to Him in confession, repentance, and surrender. God
blessed me with His truth – a Light that always reveals my
darkness.
Back in the fall we studied the scripture about the rich
young ruler found in Mark 10. This young man walked away from
Jesus because his riches meant so much to him. I saw and
understood the obvious point about the love of money – making
riches an idol, but I felt there was more to learn. I
read it over and over again.
The rich young ruler called Jesus “Good”
and Jesus told him, “No one is good but One – that is
God.” I camped out on that verse for a while. The
young man asked what he must do to inherit eternal life, and
Jesus began to list some of the commandments. The rich young
ruler assured Jesus that he had kept the commandments from his youth! He
wanted to make the point to Jesus that he was “good” and had
been good for some time. Did he think Jesus might be impressed with
his goodness though Jesus had just told him no one is good but One-
that is God? Jesus knew the
rich young ruler’s heart, and he asked him to sell
everything he had and give to the poor and then he would
have treasure in heaven. The rich young ruler walked away from Jesus,
sorrowful that Jesus had not fit into his plan. He chose his own
way over God’s way. The young man was not willing to follow Jesus and
the calling that Jesus had for his life. The rich young ruler wanted
Jesus on his own terms – a commitment of convenience.
Jesus wanted a surrendered heart, not just a
committed one. He wants the same from us today. We
can be committed to the Lord, and commitment is a good thing but a
surrendered heart is the best choice.
Commitment involves our choice and stamina to “do” something or
stick with something, but surrender goes beyond that and involves a giving
up of self as we seek to follow and obey.
A surrendered heart cares more
about what God wants than what the flesh wants. A surrendered
heart is based on a relationship and not just on a commitment
to keep rules. A surrendered heart wants God to get the glory
and follows Jesus with a living, close, personal relationship.
The Bible tells us that all of us have gone
astray and turned EVERYONE to our own way and that our hearts
are desperately wicked. Evangelist Steve Brown says that
people think there are two kinds of people—good or
bad—but really there are only bad people who know they
are bad and bad people who don’t. When we lay our goodness at the
feet of Jesus, confessing our sin, turning from it, receiving Jesus
as our Savior, He can cleanse our hearts and we can become the righteousness
of God. We were made to bring God Glory, but Satan wants
us to constantly crave it for ourselves. God is the One who is Good,
sending a Savior to suffer for
our sins, our lack of goodness, our pride – when we think our
goodness is enough.
We’ve sought God’s face in our month of prayer, and He
is Faithful. May PMC become a House of Prayer and
our homes houses of prayer as well, and this, I believe, begins
with surrendered hearts. Praise be to God who hears our
prayers and cares with His unfailing love. My
favorite part of the story is
found in the twenty-first verse. When Jesus addressed the
rich young ruler in Mark 10: 21, the scripture says that
Jesus looked at him and loved
him as he spoke truth to him.
As we read God’s Word and see His truth, He is looking at
us and loving us, too. Let us not walk
away sorrowful, setting up our “own” truth against
God’s truth; may we see what is really true and walk in it as
His Light reveals our darkness.
Four-year old Grant pushed a matchbox car
across the rug. “Where are you going?” his mother asked.
“On a mission trip,” was his reply. God’s truth is so
Good – we must share it! Let’s Know Him and make
Him known.
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