June 13, 2011
“I pray to God—my life a prayer- and wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.” Psalm 130:5-6 The Message
God’s gift in creating your life was to make you free to seek Him .. to call out to Him .. to wait and to watch for Him. It doesn’t take very long for you to realize how unfree you really are and just how unsteady your prayer life becomes each day. But God made you free to seek Him and doesn’t manipulate you into someone you don’t won’t to be! True freedom has a cost: The sinless life of Jesus. His life is your true freedom. And just as God has a habit of forgiving and redeeming .. He also doesn’t leave you to try to figure out how to live this new life in Christ. He sends His Spirit to live so intimately inside of you that He can shape all of those unspoken thoughts .. sighs .. groans .. and anxious moments into real prayer. There are seasons in our lives where God is working out the details and in between is the path of waiting and watching. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would guide you and remind you of His work and life. It is in those moments of waiting and watching that the Holy Spirit is shaping your prayers into something good. You aren’t given the details or guaranteed to “get” what you want. What you do receive is the Lord’s assuring presence and comfort amidst the strains of everyday living in a fallen world. We are prone to letting our prayer life drift away because God “seems” far away or indifferent to our conditions. That is hardly the case with Jesus. He knows exactly what you are facing today and exactly what you need and lovingly and generously showers you with the grace to live .. to stand .. and to walk faithfully into this day. The words you can’t form are just as important to Him as the words you can form. it only takes a moment …
“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” Romans 8:26-28 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Followers of Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
