Since Sunday I have had the rare occasion of teaching what I shared at Merge with two additional crowds. On Monday I spoke to the Junior Highers at Southwest Christian School's and this morning I spoke the same message to their High Schooler's. I love having the opportunity to speaking with teenagers because I believe there is so much potential in them and that one day the difference they will make is directly influenced by the voices that spoke into their lives. I consider it a privilege anytime God allows me to teach His word and these past two day have been very special.
If you were at Merge we opened up a discussion on some thoughts on prayer, specifically about a desire to spend more time focusing on prayers regarding God and His Kingdom and less about our own personal comfort and materialistic things that only seem to make like a little easier.
To kick off our thoughts we dove into one of my favorite verses found in the book of Jeremiah.
"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." ---Jeremiah 33:3
1. God calls us to pray to Him. Why would we need a reminder to pray? Because like most of us it is only when life starts to get tight we attempt to bring God into the conversation (as if He wasn't aware in the first place). So He says to call unto Him because He knows better than we do what we need.
2. God promises to answer us. I believe this section section of verse 3 is important to note. God tells us that when we call to Him that He will respond to us. I am a very imperfect father but I always respond to any request He may have. That is not to say that the answer is yes every time and it is not to say that I say no even if he is convinced that yes is the best answer. God is a lot the same way (except He isn't as dorky and doesn't tell lame jokes). He promises to answer.
3. When we pray and God responds our faith in Him grows. God does not tell us "great and unsearchable things" so that we can be smarter or seem to be more spiritual than the next guy. He reveals these things so we can be active in the adventure of the story He is writing.
It is an incredible and humbling thought that God would even be interested in hearing our words, let alone respond to them. Nevertheless, He does responds to us in incredible ways. What a beautiful truth!!!
Heart and Soul,
BAG
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