Peter
gives us a clear warning in 1 Peter 5:8 instructing us to “Be
self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring
lion looking for someone to devour.” Life as a Christian is a never ending battle
and clearly we have an enemy who seeks to destroy us. In his book titled Cavetime,
author and Pastor Jeff Voth uses the story of David’s retreat to the cave as
the background to his advice that we need to retreat and regroup from the
battle by going to the cave. Like David, we have been equipped by God with
certain weapons, stones in the pouch of David, to fight back with. Today we
look at the third stone which is prayer. The first two stones, stone one “Show
up” and stone two “Worship” work very well with third stone of prayer.
Obviously in order to pray we must
first show up. We must first acknowledge God as true and we must believe by
faith that He sent His son Jesus to save us. Yesterday we looked at worship as
a strong weapon in defeating the attacks of Satan. Jesus gave us a pattern of
prayer in Matthew Chapter six. It is no coincidence that worship is to be the
beginning of all prayer. Jesus tells us
to begin our prayers by saying "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be
your name.” The best tactics of any army involve a coordinated attack. Victory is
attained when we apply our weapons in harmony. Use these stones together.
So what is prayer? It is simply
conversation with God. Though God has no need of anything we have He desires
relationship with us. Later tonight I may decide to stop and get myself an ice
cream cone. Most likely it will be a chocolate dipped cone. My desire for that
cone will not be out of hunger because I will have had my dinner. Though we
might find something in the ingredients that have some limited nutritional
value, most likely they will be minimal. But I won’t be eating the cone for its
nutritional value. I will simply eat that cone because I enjoy the taste of
chocolate dipped cones. It will bring me pleasure. God wants relationship with
us simply because He loves us and wants the pleasure of relationship. He is no
more lonely than I will be hungry when I get my cone, but He enjoys spending
time with me. Prayer is spending time with God.
David wanted to spend time with God.
He wanted to be in God’s presence in good and bad times because He loved God.
So David was a man of prayer. It is ok to call out to God in the midst of
tragedy. It tells Him that you trust Him and recognize He is the answer to all
situations. He is also there in the good times. He wants to hear about your
joy. He wants to hear about your day. He wants to hear about your desires and
about your fears. He wants you to just talk to Him.
Sometimes we just need to retreat to
the cave. Sometimes we just need to be in God’s presence. Prayer can also be
that quiet time when, like a child weary and tired who crawls up on daddy’s
lap, we just come to Him in silence. Sometimes we need to come to the cave and
tell God what angers us or the things that hurt us. We need to go the cave and
ask God what to do when it seems we have no answers to the attack we are under.
Sometimes we just need a friend and there is no better friend than God. When we
go to God we know we can be honest. He already knows anyway. But there is no condemnation
in Christ Jesus. God’s mercies are new every day.
Maybe right now you need to retreat
to the cave. Do it. Just show up, offer your worship, and sit down and just talk
to God. He is there waiting to hear from you.
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