Sometimes I call up a prayer to God out of desperation. Sometimes I don't attend to the issues in life until they are upon me and I am playing a game of rapid catch up on my prayers. Sometimes I have prayed earnestly for the same thing over and over, wondering, what am I praying wrong. Silly me. If I have any inkling that I will have a need, or I have knowledge of what I must do for the day or the week or next month, why don't I pray about it up front. I am a person who looks at things from every angle before I do them. I pre-plan until it is ridiculous sometimes. Almost never is "Pray About This" on the top ten on my list. Oh I pray over the specifics, like - Lord help me be on time...etc. And that is good, but I just plain forget to pray about the big picture up front.
In my mind, I can imagine a place for the big picture kind of prayers. With significance. I thought, if something is important enough to make plans for it, why not sort of put a mental frame about it and feature it in my prayers rather than doing a post it note on the corkboard kind of praying. The place where I lose the notes I post. Prayer is made of both. The kind of prayer that I quickly pray and then forget about it until one day I am cleaning the cork board and say, oh that is where I put that number. I just couldn't see it for the clutter.
Or there is the kind of prayer that like your grandchildren, you really wish you had a frame and a place to put each and every picture. If I had my way, I would have one of those revolving picture shows with every picture I have of my children and grandchildren, going on a big screen, all the time. That is how I would like my prayers to be sometimes. Featured, easy access, and always right in front of me. For my sake of course, not God's. Give it to him one time and it's done. He isn't any more impressed with my multiple returns to pray over the same thing than he would be about letting Jesus die for my sins over and over again. Not going to happen. He does help me see how to pray with faith when I return over and over again sometimes. And delightfully, I can see when my prayer is answered when I return to it, quite often. Hopefully, at some point, I come with faith as well as my prayer, 'cause sometimes I forget that bringing faith is an act not a feeling. Faith is something you have - not do, but acting upon it is something you do. So praying should include at least the mental attitude if not the outright statement, "I pray this believing that God can and will be involved in answering this prayer." Notice I didn't say: "God will make it happen."
So often we all fall into the rut of praying - Please God make this happen or that happen. Please God give us this or give us that. Nothing wrong with asking God to give us good things. Even gifts. It's just not good to get into a rut with that being all prayer is about to us.
When the Lord taught the disciples to pray, the first thing he did was to direct their thinking to who God is: Father -Hallowed be thy name. To hallow according to Webster’s is "to make holy, consecrate." The past tense (ed) means it is already made Holy, and consecrated. I still am not sure what it means though, do you? Consecrate according to Webster’s is "to make or declare sacred, to dedicate (to God), to devote." The past tense means "sacred or dedicated." Dedicated in Webster’s means: "to give wholly or earnestly up to, to set apart, to inscribe or address a work to, set aside for a purpose," and as in a book - it's something written to honor a person in the Prefix of the book. Modern day terms - To feature with honor, before you proceed, then do it with all your heart. Like a favorite picture you would frame. To place it before you in a prominent spot, for all the reasons that it is precious to you. Each time you go again, it is already there, past tense, as if framed and hung in a place of prominence.
The only sad thing about my daughter giving me pictures of the grandchildren is that there isn't enough money to buy the frames. I put them into books as I can, or into this nifty picture box with drawers. But I most often go to the computer 'cause I love to put them in a slide show and let them play over and over. My favorite reason to go to the Lord again and again with my prayers is because we stay in touch, I can see how the Lord actually interacts with me through answered prayer and that He delights in answering prayer. I can see the "yes" answers and the "no" answers and can see why the "no" answers were no sometimes. But, while the little things I pray about play over and over in my head, what I want most is to place God in a place of honor in everything I do, and see him in the Big Picture in my life as the feature of my prayer, that I admire, honor, love with all my heart.
This mental picture kind of helps me understand why some cultures and religions have statues, icons and images to go to. God doesn't want us to fixate on an image, but rather a meeting place. He also doesn't want us to frame Him, but rather frame the prayer. It is the value we place on the communication with Him, (whom we revere,) that God craves. Prayer is Precious to God, not just to us. Not placing the prayer in a status of worship, but as an element of worship. A tool. A place. A reminder, a mental link. A way to See God in the Big Picture.
Can you see in your prayers. Visualize him as if he were with you answering requests as he did when he walked the earth in flesh. See Him in your big picture.
I certainly intend to try to do it more.
Lord, I so love that you are involved in the Big Picture in my life, even when I can't "picture" it. Help me look at life as a portrait, one You painted showing you already provided what I will need. I am looking to a place where I can see you right in the middle of my life. Help me remember to come to you before I step into my plans, and help me See my plans in your hands. Like the preface, or dedication of a book, I want to place you first in the story of my life. Like a favored picture in a frame, I consider my prayer worth a place of dedication to You. Amen
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