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"So no more thinking of God as distant and disapproving."

A thought by Steven Furtick from his book, Seven-Mile Miracle: Journey into the Presence of God Through the Last Words of Jesus (p. 69). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

So is that what you are thinking?  Is that what you are feeling?

Steven says, “If you are following Jesus, you are in the closest possible relationship with God. He is your Father. You are his son or daughter.”

Now you might ask, “What can I do to increase the intimacy of my relationship with God?”  Maybe you want to be closer to him.

Steven says, “The obvious answer also happens to be the right one in this case. You pray. You talk to him. It is impossible to have intimacy without conversation.

“Jesus prayed often. When he was busy, Jesus prayed. (Matthew 14:23) When he had important decisions to make, he prayed. (Luke 6:12) When following the will of God seemed almost too much to bear, he prayed. (Matthew 26:36-46) Three of the seven ‘words’ Jesus spoke from the cross are prayers.

“If Jesus needed to pray to the Father, how much more do you? Pray throughout the day. Pray about big things and little things. Pray when you’re happy or fearful or bored or in awe. As you pray, you will draw closer to your Father.”

Steven then says, “I know for some of us prayer isn’t easy or even all that appealing. There have been periods in my life when (I’m sorry to say) I’ve gotten by with short bursts of prayer sprayed heavenward periodically throughout the day, rather than any long, intentional times of intimacy with God. But let me tell you what I’ve observed about that: a minimal prayer life only holds us up for a while. Before long, we wonder why we’re feeling more stress than necessary, and we realize what the problem is—our line of communication is down. We sense that there is something basic missing from our lives, something we need, and we recognize that it is heartfelt prayer, the real thing.”

Margaret and I have had a deeper sense of our need to pray together.  So we have been spending time praying out loud together as we are heading into Margaret’s work each morning and also on our weekends.  It is really making a difference in our days and in our relationship with God.  Even this morning we took time together to pray.  We are finding it to be a very emotional time as we connect with our Father.  You see we really do need him, to connect with him, to converse with him.  Oh, we also have our personal time with him throughout our day. 

So how about you?  Are you striving to really connect with your Father?  Are you conversing with him throughout your day?  Do you really need him?  Do you?


Yes, yes!
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