This is such a natural question for Chip, because he is a man of prayer
and of conversation. Chip is in
continuous conversation with God throughout everyday. (I’m pretty sure he’s even figured out how to
pray in his sleep.) He reminds me of a
line from Richard Foster’s book, where he says “Of all spiritual
disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual
communion with [God].”
Chip prays because He finds a continual deepening of relationship with
God in prayer. In fact, the more he
prays, the more enamored he becomes with God, which drives him even more to
want to speak with God.
In the incredible busyness that we all have accepted as an appropriate
way of life, what is your view of God in relation to you and prayer? Do you see God as distant or near? Is He absent or present? Do you see Him as stingy or generous? Approachable or unapproachable?
Did you realize
that prayer
starts with God? It is His idea.
God
wants us to know Him. The
desire we have to pray is the result of God's greater desire to talk with us. God loves His people and wants us to
love and adore Him above all things.
You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind,
and with all your strength (Mark 12:30).
This
is the first commandment! And
the more we talk with God and come to know God, the more we come to love Him,
because God is Love.
That’s
what’s happening with my friend Chip.
His perpetual communion with God has given Him an astounding love for
God that has captivated every area of his life.
And from the first commandment,
this love has moved Chip into the world of the second commandment
You shall love your
neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31).
That’s
why he asks me “What have you and
Jesus been talking about?” And it’s why
I ask you the same.
“What have you and Jesus been talking
about?”
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