Life Together

Beloved People of God,

I’m always amazed when someone can encapsulate a big idea with a small word count! It’s incredible! I could write 40,000 words on just how powerful that talent is… but I digress. Sitting with the many thoughts Jesus presents in Matthew 7.1-12, I find myself once again in the presence of master wordsmiths. Reflecting on Jesus’ inspired words, Michael Card wrote, “Our confidence in prayer is not rooted in our ability to pray but in the manifestly loving nature of our Father.”

Forgive the pun, but what a Mic drop! How often have we stained our prayers with insecurity. At times, we might even become the primary audience for our entreaties, forgetting prayer is not thoughts that swirl in our hearts and minds, but our invitation to dialogue with our God and King!

Like in our times of misdirected fasting, our insecurity in prayer is due to our making too much of ourselves, too much of our ability. Praise God he doesn’t measure our prayers on our verbal embellishments or lyrical eloquence! As a matter of fact, the fewer words the better. 

Our confidence in prayer is rooted in the manifestly loving nature of our Father. This is real security. This is the confidence of a child safe in his mother’s arms. This is the assurance of a daughter held tight by her father. This is a sweet surrender of our false sense of control to the One who forever holds us and surrounds us with His love.

May this confidence be the basis by which Jesus guides us into His teaching this week on judgment and hypocrisy, worth and wisdom, prayer and aspiration.

For His Name’s Sake,

Brett