God Thinking 58 - Getting Beyond Yourself 3

"If you can get beyond yourself you can enter a place where:
God speaks and you listen. A place where dinner or your favorite TV show does not  decide when you break off your communication with the Holy One.

Prayer with God was never meant to be something that you do in passing or out of duty, but worse yet is to treat prayer like a smorgasbord, and God is the server and you go to Him begging for this or that and even worse yet, demanding that God do this or that.

You can demand demons, but not God.

I am going to talk about a place that might be a bit unfamiliar

territory for some.  Plea se bear with me.

We are always praying for God to do this or do that or get us out of this or get us out of that. 

We pray for God to meet our needs.

We even plead with God on behalf of others for this or that.

We certainly pray when things go wrong or when we are in trouble or when we need something.

And I am not saying not to continue praying for what you need and for what you think others need.

But I am saying, in addition to the kinds of prayer that I have mentioned, that you should also pray like this:  LORD, what would you have me experience, that I might see you more clearly?"  It won't necessarily be what you have in mind, but the more you get into the presence of God, the more what you have inmind is what God speaks to you."

Excerpt from God Thinking 58 - Getting Beyond Yourself by Keith C. Powell Copyright 2012