Ready to go yet?

If your family is anything like mine, then you’ll identify with the following situation. You are in the lobby after church and your wife say’s “are you ready to go” and you say, “Sure, where are the kids?” By the time you locate one of your two children your wife is off talking to someone else. So you seize the opportunity to chat with a friend and before you know it twenty minutes have passed and you still don’t have any idea where the kids are. Lets call this scenario one. Now, scenario two is much different. Your wife say’s “I’m ready to go and I'll be waiting in the car” this means; find the kids at once and get to the car, lest you get text messages inquiring of your whereabouts.

As a well-seasoned husband, I understand that both requests may sound alike, but only one is worth my attention. I am concerned that to often our prayers are given in a similar way. “Lord please be with aunt Alice” or “keep us safe while we travel” While these may be valid prayers, are we sincerely seeking God’s help in these matters or are we just spitting out requests as our “christian” duty?  If rattling off insincere lists of things for God to do for us is our idea of prayer, then I don’t think we know how to pray. No wonder our prayer life is unfulfilling and fruitless.

Have you ever considered that while you are reciting your well-rehearsed prayers, God is also sitting on His thrown while a host of angles are crying out Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God almighty. The next time you pray for God to do something for you, make sure you equally committed to the request. You could say that fasting is kind of like saying “I’ll be waiting in the car for you”

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16b