L et me start off by assuring you that this is not going to be a political blog about our religious liberty or impending lack of it. It is a blog about prayer! Many of you are already seasoned, mature Christians enjoying a relationship with God through prayer. For the sake of definition, prayer is basically conversation with God. This blog about prayer will be divided into three parts, in order to get my message across. I hope to encourage you to think about this word that I received about prayer, and then reflect on your own prayer life.
It was during a time of studying a book about how prayer changes your life that I was challenged to see prayerlessness as sin. I couldn’t fathom what the author was saying! But, rather than being quick to dismiss it, I asked God to show me how this can be true. I did not consider my prayer life to be prayerlessness. After all, I prayed every day, a little in the morning, a little before bed and throughout the day. Wherever I was and whatever I was doing as thoughts and circumstances crossed my mind, I conversed with God. Wasn’t that enough?
After contrasting the words praying less with praying more, I thought I had a better understanding of prayerlessness, but, was I really ready to take the challenge to schedule at least an hour a day to set aside every day to deepen my relationship with God? And why would it be sinful to not want to do it? That is when I received this word on the importance of the privilege of prayer. Before one can understand that having a conversation with God is a privilege and not just something they’re entitled to as one of God’s creations, they must go back to the beginning of creation.
Guilt in the Garden
The Lord brought to my mind the part of the story of creation in the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve first disobeyed Him by choosing to believe the lie of the serpent (aka the devil). I encourage you to read all of Genesis chapter three, however, this was the lie that the devil told Eve regarding His command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
“ You will surely not die. For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)
But, Adam and Eve did die, both spiritually and eventually physically. And so, that was passed down through all generations, leaving God and man separated. Sin is now part of our DNA. God is loving, but He is also holy and just, therefore, He can not tolerate sin! However, out of His great love for His creation, He did not destroy Adam and Eve, and the future of all mankind, but they were banished from the Garden of Eden. There was still something redeemable to God about His special creation.
Now, watch what happened when Adam and Eve sinned! As soon as they ate the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked and felt ashamed. So, they hid from God and covered themselves with large, scratchy fig leaves. They knew they would be held accountable to their Creator, and so did that lying serpent.
After God questioned them about what they did and told them what the consequences of their actions would be. Then He made Adam and Eve soft lamb skin coverings to cover their nakedness and shame. In order to do that, he had to sacrifice a lamb. It is written in His Word that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin. The sacrifice of shedding the lamb’s blood was a covering for their sin, because God would not look upon or tolerate sin. The blood of the lamb could not completely remove their sin, but only temporarily cover it up.
The Law and the Sacrificial System
In the book of Exodus, you can read about the law that God gave Moses (the Mosaic Covenant) for His people (the Jewish people), which included this sacrificial system along with the Ten Commandments (and a lot of other laws). The sacrificial system was necessary as a temporary covering of sin, in order for the people to be worthy enough to even approach such a Holy God. You see, once sin entered the world, mankind was separated from God. But, God had a plan in place before creation because He is omniscient. He knows all, and knew man would sin, therefore He made a way to reconcile man back to God. However it would take a long time before He would send the Savior that would put an end to the sacrificial system.
Now I will say something radical that would be considered intolerant and politically incorrect. Without a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Savior, you can’t have a conversation with God.
“I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 ESV
So, either Jesus was a liar, or the world (people who don’t recognize Jesus as Lord) are being deceived. Come back next week as I take you deeper into this blog series on prayer.
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