A beautiful, late afternoon South Texas sky provided a wonderful cathedral for my brisk exercise walk. The mild temperature, the singing birds and being alone in wide open spaces made it easy to increase my pace. After a very full work day, being alone in the fields near my house sure felt good. But I wasn’t alone.
As I enjoyed the solitude of the country road near our house, the Lord’s voice spoke deep within my spirit, “You’re not praying.”
I stopped. After looking around to find the origin of this voice, I concluded that God’s Spirit had spoken to me. I was no stranger to the Holy Spirit. For twelve or thirteen years I had lived for the Lord Jesus, earned a Bachelor’s degree from a Christian university and pastored for seven or eight years. So I recognized the Lord’s voice, but I did not like what he said.
I stood motionless trying to comprehend this unexpected encounter with the Holy Spirit. I began listing my arguments against God’s observation regarding my lack of prayer.
“I pray while I’m driving my car, when I’m mowing my lawn and well, doing other things,” I reasoned. But God had nailed me. He meant I wasn’t spending any special time in his presence. Appointments filled my day from early morning to late evening, but I never made an appointment to be alone with him.
God’s message ended my exercise program for that day. I strolled home trying to decide how to respond to the Lord’s words that changed the direction of my life. The Spirit of the resurrected Jesus did me a favor that afternoon. He took me off the prayerless pathway I was walking and started bringing me into a life of communion with him. Jesus rescued me from an exceedingly narrow definition of prayer. He intended to gradually bring me into the intimate fellowship of his Spirit.
Appointments with God never happen accidentally. Jesus told us to “go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen.” (Matthew 6:6) This “prayer room” is set aside for a visit with God and a visit from God. But this prayer room is not merely a place for making endless petitions of the Creator of all things. The prayer room serves as a communion chamber in which a human spirit and God’s Spirit interact. The communion chamber allows God to pour his life into us as we share ourselves with him.
I, too, Pastor, have felt that I needed to improve my own walk with the Lord. I think He’s speaking to us to just stop and listen to Him, rather than just zip past in life’s never ending “things to do.”
Now I need to “improve” but I’ve confessed, I don’t know how to improve! Taking my concerns to the Lord on how to “improve” my relationship with Him!
Thanks for sharing–I know He is speaking to me, too!
Blessings, Mary
Thanks for encouraging — and reminding — Christians of the absolute necessity of special communion time with the Lord, apart from our “regular” prayer time, which is often merely a recital of our spiritual wish lists.
Louis Alexander