First Things First
In Exodus 3, Moses, talking with God asks, “Who shall I say sent me to you?” The answer? “I Am who I Am.” God says, “The One who makes things happen has sent you.”
In my experience there are many blessings in the call to prayer. These blessings are the kind that cannot be fully imagined or realized apart from a life of prayer.
Being a product of this Western/American culture that is almost addicted to seeing things happen, goals met, and progress measured as an end in itself, I know that prayer can easily become an obligation and ingredient for the pursuit of success. This, I have learned, by itself, is a perversion of the call to pray. The purpose of prayer is not first for our “institutional success.”
Don’t misunderstand. For the church to move ahead in mission, prayer is essential. When one investigates mission and ministry that is moving ahead and gaining ground in the Kingdom, what is discovered will include men and women of prayer, somewhere, who are intimately involved in praying for the success of the mission.
The blessing, however, is not first the success of the mission. The blessing is first for the one who prays in knowing God. In prayer, a kind of love develops that one cannot know otherwise. Prayer that is based on the Word and that is grounded in the heart of Jesus leads one to know the Living God intimately.
There is an interesting passage in Daniel (11:32) that connects knowing God and action. It says, “…but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.” Hosea pushes this even further. He makes the knowledge and love of God our priority. “Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;” (Hosea 6:3). “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).
So we pray. And with that, “things” will happen that can only be considered additional blessings. The first blessing is to know the One who makes things happen (Exodus 3) through Jesus Christ.
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