Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

           

God has been reminding me of some pretty amazing things to me over the past week and I’d like to share them with you.  I mainly want to share with you the importance of prayer.  It seems to me that prayer is one of the most underrated, yet most powerful tools we have in our walks with God.  God desires and responds to the prayers of His people more than anything else.  Prayer is our chance to seek the heart of God and to also pour our hearts out to Him as well. 

In Joshua 9:14, the Israelites made a peace treaty with their neighbors, the Gibeonites, without even realizing it.  We are told in this passage that they did not consult God before accepting food from them, which symbolized their acceptance of the treaty.  Had they simply consulted God first, they would not have been deceived by the disguised Gibeonites.  Prayer should precede everything we do.  And as I said before, prayer is our chance to hear from God, which is ultimately more important than God hearing from us, although prayer involves both. 

I had the opportunity to attend a Pierce County prayer summit up in Auburn with Pastor Dean last week and we heard a teaching on the account of Jesus cleansing the Temple.  After Jesus drove out the dishonest merchants from the Temple, he said that his Father’s house will be a house of prayer.  He did not say a house of music or preaching, although both are good, but he clearly states here that prayer is to be the priority of God’s people.  One thing is for sure: PRAYER CHANGES THINGS!  If we as a church (the worldwide community of believers, not just our building here in Tacoma) want to reach a hurting community around us, we must spend time seeking the heart of God.  God must become a priority to us, not just a 90-minute blip in our Sunday morning schedule. 

I truly believe that God is calling us, every last one of us, to be a people who prioritize God and eagerly seek for opportunities (not obligations) to meet with Him.  I’ve noticed an ironic truth regarding prayer in my own life.  I’ve found that I usually feel reluctant to spend extended periods of time in prayer, but when I do, I always feel so much better about my situation and I feel so filled by God’s presence.  I have come to realize that this feeling of reluctance comes from the enemy because even the enemy knows that prayer is deadly to his cause.  If you are like me and struggle with this occasional or even frequent reluctance towards prayer, I would challenge you to force yourself to practice prayer.  Relationships take work, and that goes doubly for our relationship with God. 

My prayer is that by fighting the resistance towards prayer, we will become a people who are passionate for prayer and bring ALL things to God in prayer, both as individuals and corporately.  May God teach us to love and anticipate our prayer time with Him! 

 

In God’s Grace,

Pastor Jeff Harris