Prayer - Humble Living

"Be humbled by God’s power so that when the right time comes he will honor you.
Turn all your anxiety over to God because he cares for you."
-Apostle Peter writing to the first believers, 1st century
1 Peter 5:6-7 in God's Word Translation

[This is the 7th message in this series]

If you have been following this teaching, you would have by now rooted yourself down with the habit of praying -- spending time with the God of Creation. You may not see the fruits yet of what you have started to do, but like a fruit tree before it sprouts and produces branches which will bear fruit, its roots first need to dig deep, so as not to easily fall over and uprooted.

Having spent the first moments of each day, praying would have instilled by now a sense of awe and wonder of being able to be in the presence of God, and having an audience with the Supreme Being, the Origin, the First and the Last, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. No One else would be higher.

Humbled

And yet God is the One who waits for us in our secret place at our quiet time, He waits for us to wake up and finds the time to meet with Him. He does not force us to. He does not obligate us. He does not guilt trip us when we don't do it.

He is the loving and patient Father, personified in the story of the Prodigal (Lost) Son which Jesus taught to those who took the time to spend listening to Him tell it.

Lost Sheep

We were that Lost Son (the lost sheep). Then Jesus found us. And He called our name. He then said to us, "come follow me". And we did.

We are like Matthew, the tax collector, who dropped everything and followed Jesus after He called to him.

Matthew 9:9–12

We who are lost, the unhealthy, we who are sick, sinners, we are the ones who Jesus called out to. (It is not the healthy who needs a doctor). We are the ones who need the Healer, the Shepherd, the Savior, the Christ.

We, the Peters of this world - the arrogant, hot-tempered, the Jameses and the Johns - sons of thunder, the Thomases - the doubters, and the Marys.

We are the ones called - the ones who made mistakes or wrong decisions, the ones who due to circumstances beyond our control, lost our way.

We come to God with our imperfections, our frail humanity. Our Heavenly Father sent out His Word and through the power of the Holy Spirit, came down to our world in the flesh and lived among us.

We meet with Our Father in heaven in our secret place first thing in the morning. And we leave walking in His righteousness and grace throughout the day. And so as we go about the rest of our day, we too have the opportunity to tell others about God and His love. And God repeats the process that He did with Peter and Andrew, James and John, and Paul and Mary, and the other disciples He first called.

We who have been called are humbled to become fishers of other people walking about in a dark, cold and unfair world -- people (like us) who are not worthy by any stretch of the imagination, but chosen nonetheless and trusted with the Word, God's Word, God's love and God's grace. And thus full of gratitude and eager to meet with Our heavenly Father in our secret place.