To Pray is to Change

To pray is to change. When we engage in prayer, we are conversing with the sovereign God, creator and redeemer. To spend any time in His presence is to be transformed by Him. Just as Moses' face shone after spending time in the presence of God in the Tent of Meeting so we too will begin to reflect the glory of the Father as we spend time in prayer with Him. Often, however, this change will only be recognised by those around us. It is not something that we can trumpet about ourselves.

It is common to think of prayer as dumping a list of requests upon God and going away thinking that our mind is at peace because we know that He will answer our prayers. This is only a small part of the truth. God wants us to be prepared to be a part of the answer. We ask out of mixed motives. In answering, God may want to sort out our motives, or change our attitudes to people and things. We cannot pray without having an interest in the answer. We cannot have an interest in the answer unless we are prepared to be a part of that answer.

It is interesting that at the end of the teaching on prayer in Luke 11 that Jesus refers to the giving of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the agent of transformation in our lives and in the life of the church. He is given that the on-going work of God can be done in and through our lives. He is the deposit guaranteeing what is to come, the seal of our salvation, the sign that God is not finished with us yet.

In prayer, we want God to change things. God is more interested in changing us into the likeness of His Son .
 

October 4, 1992
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