Friendly Prayer
One of my highest values and thing that I’m most thankful for in this world is good friendships. They add a piece to life that no other thing can fill. We were made for relationships and we were made for fellowship. The best of friendship comes with the comfortability and openness to be truly honest with how you’re doing and what you’re going through. It’s a person you can be transparent and vulnerable with and be free from judgement or shame. Jesus went so far to call us, those who believe, His friends.
Friendships blossom due to two main things: communication and quality time. It’s quite simple, you spend time with someone and in doing so you talk. This is how you get to know each other and grow closer. Let me lay a quick foundation, Jesus died on the cross and rose again to take away the sins of the world. Namely, the sins of any and all who would put their faith in Him. Sin separated us from God. If you have confessed with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, then you have been forgiven from your sins and currently have a right relationship with the Lord.
This is a beautiful reality, and it comes with the gift of being no longer under God’s judgement — rather we get to be called God’s friend. We are now able to commune with Him through the practice of prayer – which is literally talking to God. We’re told many times throughout the Bible to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16), pray at all times (Ephesians 6:18), and many more.
God desires to know us. Psalm 37:23 says, “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” He wants us to commune with Him and be honest and vulnerable with Him – the same way we are with a close friend.
I found something happening in my prayer life the last few years. I’m very aware of some specific desires in my heart such as: leaving an impact on the world, having a family, and living well. As I would be praying, I would be reminded of things I don’t have and I found myself pulling away from honest prayer with the Lord – almost as a way of blaming Him that I don’t have those things just yet.
This morning I was journaling and was struck with this thought: maybe these things that are showing up in my mind during prayer are functioning as reminders to pray and be honest about what I feel about those things. I had been doing the exact opposite. When those things would come up, I would reel back and pull away from God out of past disappointments and wounds.
What I want to remind you, friends, is the same thing I was reminded of today. God desires for you to talk to Him about the things you’re going through, the things that make you light up with excitement, and the happenings of the deeper places in your heart. I realized I had been shying away from talking about these things in detail with the Lord when that may be exactly the thing He has been calling me to talk to Him about.
Yes, those desires are the deeper, important longings of my heart, but I don’t want to attain them outside of God’s plan and timing. If they are things that become a part of my reality, I want them to come in tandem with the favor of the Lord. For example, if a perfect job is out there for me, I want it to come as I’m knitted close to the Lord, otherwise, that job may become my idol and actually take me away from the Lord.
I want to encourage you today, friends, to be honest with God about where you’re at. Make this a practice. When those things you desire that seem out of reach come into your mind, don’t allow them to haunt you and lead you to envy, jealousy, or resentment use that thought as a reminder to bring those things honestly before the Lord. At the end of the day, we ought to desire those things with God and so pursue them well and righteously, rather than seek them outside of God and attain them unhealthily and dangerously. As a believer, God is your friend. He wants to hear what makes you tick – let’s practice habitually bringing our whole hearts and our desires to the Lord together.
