The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

Instead of continuing with the next verses today, I’d like to continue on the topic of prayer and confession of sin since that’s the direction our conversation has taken, This is still very much a part of this topic because the entire book is discussing both what constitutes a genuine fellowship or relationship with God and how to tell if we or someone else has that kind of fellowship with Him.

One big problem that many people have is their prayer life. Part of the problem I suspect is due to the way many of us were taught about prayer. In many churches, especially the Catholic and Episcopal churches, prayer is something you read out of a book and/or repeat after a priest, or just say “amen” too. Many people who grew up in churches like these, have a very hard time learning how to just talk to the Lord. I know that was very true for me coming out of the Episcopal church.

We often feel as though we’re not good enough for the Lord to hear our prayers but His Word says differently. His Word says that He will hear our prayers and answer them, therefore we must live by faith and not by our feelings or even by sight in this area. This is true especially when we first get started because we often feel so awkward.

1 John 3:21-22 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Prayer is probably the most important aspect of our life as Christians. It may surprise some people that I would say that as much as I harp on studying His Word. I bet most people would have thought that I would say that reading and studying His Word is the most important part. While that is of course very important, our connection to Him can’t be maintained if we don’t spend time in prayer.

There were many centuries where Christians didn’t have bibles to read. The only scriptures they knew were those that were explained to them by the RCC. I say those explained to them because the RCC read the scriptures in Latin which many people didn’t even understand. So their only connection to the Lord was through their prayer life. Through that alone the Lord was able to strengthen them and teach them. Those who truly loved the Lord had little choice but to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide them to the truth and teach them.

Then as now though there were people that preferred to let the priests do the work for them and they simply went to church and did whatever the priests said. Those that truly loved the Lord and wanted to be close to Him however, were not satisfied with that and and instead of relying on the priests, they relied on the Holy Spirit spending much time in prayer.

We can look at everything our Lord did while He was here to see what our lives should look like. One thing that’s very noticeable is that He spent a great deal of time in prayer. If our Lord Himself took His valuable time to pray to the Father, then how much more should we be doing so?

He not only daily spent time alone praying, but He also was constantly uttering “mini prayers” to the Father throughout the day. Here’s one example of that so you know what I mean. The background for the following verses is that Jesus was teaching the public as well as His disciples about sin and repentance among other things, and He suddenly stops speaking to them and instead prays to the Father and says:

Matthew 11:25-26 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

This is shown again in this second verse as well as many others:

Luke 3:21-22 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

He does this frequently which gives us an idea of what we should do. If our minds are always on Him as they should be, then it is perfectly natural for us to do the same thing.

For example yesterday while we were shopping I saw something that I really wanted to get for my granddaughter but didn’t think I could afford to. So I put it back and continued on. My husband however realized it was on sale and that we could afford it for her. So he picked it back up and brought it to me explaining that it was only $7. The first words out of my mouth were: “Thank You Lord!”

The point being that Jesus talked (prayed) to the Father as though the Father was right there with Him every second of every day; as though the Father was intimately involved in everything Jesus said, did and thought. From what the Bible says, we know that this is actually true, and not just for Jesus, but for us as well!

The Lord really is with us every second of every day. He really is involved in everything in our lives, right down to the smallest details of them. Our choice is to realize this and acknowledge it, or to ignore it.

Unfortunately most people choose to ignore it. When you begin to realize just how very close the Lord is to you all day long, then you can’t help but talk to Him about what’s going on. If He was a real flesh and blood person right there with us 24/7 and involved in everything, it wouldn’t occur to us to ignore Him would it? That would be outright rude! We’d be chatting with Him all the time. It’s no less rude of us to act as though He isn’t present just because we can’t see Him with our physical eyes.

Matthew 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Luke 15:31  ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

Acts 2:25  David said about him: “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Deuteronomy 31:8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

This is what having a close personal relationship with the Lord is all about. He’s always with us—always; not just when we pray or just when we go into a church, but always.

However there is another type of prayer that’s just as necessary for us. Jesus showed us what that looks like as well.

Matthew 14:22-23 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,

Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

With these and other verses we see that Jesus took time out of his day to be alone with the Father and pray. This is the more serious side of prayer rather then the regular chat during the day. It’s during this time that the Lord draws us ever closer to Himself and makes us more like Jesus. It’s during this time that we take Him our most serious needs as well as the needs of others. It’s during this time too that we confess and repent of sin that He’s shown us throughout the day. I look at this time as similar to the time a husband and wife have when they need to have a real talk about what’s going on in their lives. Although we talk to our spouses all day long, we also have a need to have fairly regular more involved intimate conversations with them too. Usually these conversations are longer then the constant chat during the day. What’s also true though is that both of these types of prayer often overlap each other, just as both kinds of conversation over lap between a husband and wife.

For example, when I realize that I’ve sinned, I certainly don’t wait till my next scheduled quiet time with the Lord to confess it and repent of it! Of course not! I repent and confess it immediately, no matter where I am or what I’m doing or who I’m with. When I do this it’s quite heartfelt too. There is nothing “casual” about it. Generally though, it ends there. In other words the Lord forgives me and we go on about our day together. Then, since I usually have two “quiet time” periods with Him every day, (every morning and every evening) when my evening quiet time comes, I usually bring it up again. I don’t ask for forgiveness again, because He’s already forgiven me. What we do then though is discuss what happened. We discuss why I sinned, what led to it, what might cause it to happen again, etc. and this is the time when He usually breaks my sins down for me so that I can see their roots, which helps me grow. Let me repeat the example I used earlier here:

Let's say I lied about something that I felt was inconsequential, and I am discussing that what happened with Him. When I do the Lord might show me that I not only sinned by lying but that I actually was sinning because I didn't trust Him. (If I trusted Him then I would have told the truth and allowed the consequences to simply happen anyway) Then when that thought had filtered through my mind, I would realize that I was also sinning by attempting to manipulate people and control what was happening or would happen! Then my next thought might by that I had just sinned too by being self righteous thinking that I could control everything and make things work out the way I wanted them too, rather then trusting the Lord to work things out for my good. ....etc...

When I confess this is very close to the kind of dialog that goes on between me and the Lord. He keeps peeling the onion so to speak, showing me the deeper and deeper roots of each sin. You can see from this how this is much more involved, deeper, then something that would go on as part of regular conversation during the day.

Sometimes these two types of prayer will overlap too, just as the two types of conversation sometimes overlap in a marriage relationship. An example of a conversation I have regularly with the Lord that is kind of a mix, would be when I’m reading my Bible. While I’m reading I’m usually saying things like, "what do you mean here Lord?" "How does that help me Lord", "how can I do this Lord" "but what about...?" Does this go along with what I was reading the other day"? etc. For this His answers are generally things He shows me in scripture. You can see though how this is a mixture of both types of prayer though.

For me the most important thing to remember is that the Lord is always with us, and that He really does care about what’s going on. To teach myself how to have this kind of relationship with Him, when I was first saved, I simply pretended that I had an invisible friend, much like many small children do. Of course what I was pretending, was actually true, I do have an invisible friend, and His Name is Jesus. That helped me to remember to include Him in everything I was doing though.

At first I felt very strange about it and even silly at times. But now it’s just a part of me. Learning to do it this way also helped me learn to actually listen and look for His answers too, which has also made a huge difference in my life and in my relationship with Him.

I hope I haven’t bored you too much. I think it’s such an important subject and really wanted to try and at least discuss it a little bit here.

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