Am I Causing the Static in my Prayer Life?
Isaiah 59:1-3
There is something conflicting with the spirit when it refuses to hear the word of God. Sometimes we will ignore the gentle whisper of Christ because what he is trying to tell us isn’t what we asked for. Then there a moments when the sin that we actively par-take in can overshadow what he is trying to impart.
How many times have we come before the Lord with a request and all He says, is “you need to fix this specific area in your life”? We know that if God is nothing else he is direct and straight to the point. There’s no time to beat around the bush…he’ll give you the plan hard truth…I guess that’s what the old folk used to say…give it to me straight…not salt, no chaser. You need an example how about John 4 when Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman vs 16-17 “He told her to go and call her husband and come back. I have no husband she replied. Jesus said to her, You are right when you say that you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite right.
The last thing you want to hear when you’re asking your parent about a gift is -Did you clean your room? In essence that is what the sovereign is saying to us…Have you cleaned your room…is your motive pure for the request that you so freely mention to me. When is the last time I have seen you in my presence and we had a true and honest conversation about what my purpose is for your life. So often we tend to always come before the Lord with wants, desires, tradeoffs…and all he is looking for is a mere thank you.
There are many blessings that we receive that often go over looked…if you can get up in the morning and see the dust on your dresser…then thank Him for sight, if you can turn over and swat your cat off the bed then thank him for use of your limbs and if you can make a complete sentence and your nouns and verbs agree then thank him for being in your right mind!
However, He respectfully, says, I can’t grant the wish or desire of your heart because you refuse to correct the sin in your life. Have you had a period in your life that it seems rest couldn’t find you…no matter how large the net was that you cast out to grasp it? The mere thought of rest always escapes you? Isaiah says in 57:20-21 “ But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire mud. There is no peace, says my God for the wicked”. Where is the part of your life that you have denied access to God? Have you really given all that you are over to Him or is there a portion that you want to maintain on your own. When and only when we release that very thing we hold so dear can he bless us the way He wants to. How can he give us the desires of our heart when we cheat on our taxes, borrow that paper clip from the office, tell that little white lie to get off work on Wed to hear jazz in the park? The song says, “Jesus is on the main line” but for some reason you can’t figure out why you can’t hear him.
As we walk the life of Christianity we must understand that we are never to busy not to always keep an ear open for God. Often as we embark on our journey on this earth we allow so many other voices to enter on sacred space that in time we can drown out the ever so soft voice of the Savior.
God will not speak until we admit that apart from His genuine work in our lives, we are helpless to receive anything from him. This is also clear in John 10:27 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me”…are you sure that you are following the right Shepard?
There are three aspects that we as followers of Christ can indulge in that can drown out the Gentle Whisper
- Not knowing the character of God
- Have you taken the time to get to know God’s Character- how can you share a God that you haven’t taken the time to know intimately? Has your walk lost its legs and now you can only borrow someone else’s praise? The gift of being saved is to know that the door is always open and the veil has been lifted. We don’t need anyone to go to God for us Jesus made the bridge that we can forever stand on. All you have to do is take the journey to the mountain and request entrance into the Holy place.
- Where are you spending the time that you promised him-so often we tell God that we’ll start our meditation tomorrow then we look up 6 months later and that effort never begun. How can we expect to hear from Him and we haven’t sat down long enough to have a conversation. Some of the most turmoil filled moments in my life were when I was screaming so loudly to God that I couldn’t hear him if he were a horn on top of a tug boat. I have been in places in my life that turning a deaf ear took on a whole new meaning!
Paul says in II Corinthians 13:5
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless you, of course, you fail to test?
We have the gift of meditation: The essence of meditation is a period of time set aside to contemplate the Lord, listen to him, and allow him to permeate our spirits.
- Having a Poor Self-Image
- The God we serve is perfect and we, made of only dust are prone to fall short of the glory-however never let the frailty of being human stop you from knowing that God will and does hear you. He will hear you in the depths and rescue from yourself.
- Charles Stanley puts it this way “He knows our weakness. He knows our innermost hurts, fears, and frustrations, yet He longs to gain intimacy with us. It is in these scarred, earthen vessels that Jesus has chosen to put His unmatchable presence.”
II Corinthians 4: 8-11, 17-18
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not abandonded; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
17-18
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes on not what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
III . Heightened sense of false guilt
- The devil has way of getting under our skin and planting seeds that we’re not good enough for God. The master of deception and lies can attack our self-esteem which in-turn terminates our praise.
- How can we feel like praising God when we think that He thinks we’re worthless? It gets hard to lift our hands and glorify Him when all we hear in our hearts is His judgment reigning on us. Release yourself from the feeling of not pleasing God. His love endures forever and there is nothing he would rather be doing than sharing it with you.
- The devil will make you forget that our GOD is merciful and weeping may endure for a night but, thank you Jesus JOY WILL COME in the morning! 1Corinthians 15:33 says, “Don’t be misled: bad company corrupts good character” who’s in your camp that needs a one way ticket to somewhere other than your land of Cannan?
Charles Stanley puts it this way “The truth is, we are saved, we are sanctified, we are saints, we are children of the living God”.
In closing, all that God ever wanted was to create a people that will worship him and adore him and return the desires of their heart he would fulfill according to his word. So whenever you feel that there is static in your prayer…hang up the phone pick up the good book and listen for a whisper. You can’t spread the word of God if you don’t intimately know the word of God. Stop the devil in his tracks when he plays that broken record of who you use to be…quickly remind is conniving self that you are a new creation in Christ and fashioned in his image and there is nothing that him and his minions can do about it!!! So, yes Jesus is on the main line…go ahead tell him all about your troubles…but remember to say thank you for the trials…they only make you stronger…
