Prayer - Your Declaration of Dependence

Prayer is your declaration of dependence on an unseen God. So many of us live our lives doing what we do, doing what we believe we need to do with no input from the one who created us - God. That I believe is a mistake. It is so easy to go about our lives doing what we do well, ignoring issues, allowing things to frustrate us, developing relationships, or walking out of relationships without taking any time to check in with God to find out what he desires for our lives. Independence is what we strive for and celebrate in this life, yet in God's economy, dependence is critical.

The word dependence means the state of relying on or needing someone or something for aid, support, or the like. In this case, my argument for prayer is that when we pray we are declaring our dependence on an unseen God, the creator of the universe. Prayer is about communion with God. It is about connecting with God, learning how to hear him, listening to him, two-way communication, intimacy. I will be writing about all of this as we journey through the mystery of prayer.

Jesus, God's son, invested hours in prayer on a daily basis. According to John 5:19, "The Son can do nothing himself, but what he sees the Father do..." He only did what he saw the Father do and he only said what heard the Father say. This is dependence. Jesus was not an independent thinker. He relied on his relationship with Father God.

Where was this seeing and doing taking place? It was in the place of prayer that Jesus got his direction for the things he did while on the earth. Daily dependence on the Father was how Jesus lived. If that is so, than how much more should we depend on our God for the decisions we make.

A year ago, I wanted to start a prayer blog. It took me a year, but here we are - that is what this will be - A Declaration of Dependence - Prayer - a blog about prayer. I will write about prayer, I will pray, I will answer questions about prayer and in the process, I trust I will learn more about prayer than I know today. I trust that this blog will encourage you to pray. If you have questions, you are welcome to ask. I look forward to dialog about the importance of prayer, or even your frustrations with prayer.