Two-Way Prayer

I ran across some interesting things when i was doing my QT today and i just had to write them down.

I think for most Christians including myself we see prayer as a one-way thing. We see prayer as me talking to God. We pray "God you are great, you are the best, i pray for this person and that, and lord give me this, this and this" I know i have done that plenty of times and i still do it today when im really busy or have something else to do. I don't realize that im talkiing to the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE. And how privliged i am to be talking to him.

Anyway the point i really want to make is that most people don't see prayer as a two-way thing. We see prayer as me talking to God and that's it. Well that is true. Prayer is us talking to God and giving him the praise and glory that he deserves, but prayer is also us listening. Its just like any relationship. A relationship requires you to talk to the other person and for that person to talk back. When this happens you get to know the person better and the relationship becomes more meaningful and important. If all we do is talk to God then we can't expect the relationship to grow. If our conversations with God are one-way then we can't expect to grow in him and through him. God is our ultimate mentor and we look up and learn from mentors, but if all we do is talk to them then we can't expect to learn from them.

So the next question is how do we know when its him talking.

This is a question that i don't know the anwser to. I don't know how we know when its God, but i know that when God is talking to me i know its him. There is no other feeling like hearing from the creator of the universe. God might speak to one person one way and another person another way, but God does speak to us and in very astounding ways. For me its music. I think that God speaks to me through music because that is what i love. For somebody else it might be different.

One thing however that i think we have to be careful of is to make sure that when we feel God is telling us something that it really is what GOD wants for our life and not what WE want for our life. It goes back to what i wrote the other day. We become so creative in justifying what we want for ourselves. We create ways to get around what God wants for us because its not what we think will benefit us and what will make us happy. We have to make sure that when we hear God and we start to do what he is telling us to do that it lines up with scripture. I know all the time i think God is telling me to do this or that and i jump right on it. I say "Oh this is what God would have me do because its the right thing to do" But most of the time its not what God wanted me to do its what i thought i needed to do in order to satisfy myself and please others.

So i think what im trying ot say is that prayer isn't just us talking to God. Its much more. Its listening to what we think God is telling us and then making sure it lines up with scriptures and finally acting on it. No matter where we are in our prayer lives we ALWAYS have to remember what Paul tells us in I Thessalonians 5:17. ......

"pray continually"

no matter what.