Just Ask

Have you ever tried holding your breath?

Did you last longer than a minute holding it?

Which is easier, to hold your breath or not?

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”

Martin Luther

            Prayer is easier to do than not to do for a true follower of Christ. Maybe that’s the reason why Paul urged to ‘Pray without ceasing’ (1 Thess. 5:17) like breathing. (P.S. We Sin without ceasing so maybe it’s another reason why we really NEED to pray always).

Yet, what if prayer is more than a responsibility we think or as a chore or a habit that’s hard to keep? Let’s admit it that from time to time- even most of the time, we can’t keep our prayer times. What if it’s something very special; a key to a greater place or event in our relationship with God? In Jeremiah 33:3, God spoke to Jeremiah about ‘great and mighty things’ which he did not know about that God would be willing to share. There was something that Jeremiah and all of us needed to do- Just ask.

Prayer is an Invitation or rather an answer to God’s invitation. To ‘Call’ to Him; Ask Him. God has been inviting us; calling to us. Even Jesus said in John 6:44 that we only come to Him unless the Father who sent Him draws them.

How about we try an exercise?

Put your hand on your chest.

What do you hear? It’s that thumping sound of our hearts that goes ‘thud-thud’ like someone is knocking. Here’s a simple picture of God inviting us and prayer is our response to His invitation:

Revelation 3:20 (NLT)

²⁰ “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. (Emphasis added)

Prayer is opening that door and letting in God. The difference of being called and chosen has always been the response to that call. But it doesn’t end there as just an invitation. There is the Promise Of The Invitation.

What is that promise? Let’s review Jeremiah 33:3: ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (NKJV, emphasis added).

First promise if we respond to that invitation is that He will answer. He will. Sometimes, it feels like He doesn’t hear us or we keep on asking ‘what’s keeping God so long to answer?’ Yet, we must never forget that being a true follower takes trust to ‘walk not by sight but by faith’. That as we pray He already knows our deepest need (Matt. 6:8) and if we who are fallen and sinful (Rom. 3:23) could give good gifts to our children, what more can a Heavenly and loving Father give good gifts to us. If we ask bread He will not give us stone.

Another promise in response to God’s invitation is Revelation.

We all thrive in revelation. If there is no revelation people perish (Prov. 29:18), but where there is revelation or divine wisdom there is also life. But what does revelation really mean? According to the dictionary it’s:

a. The act of revealing or disclosing.

b. Something revealed, especially a dramatic disclosure of something not previously known or realized.

2. Theology A manifestation of divine will or truth.

God is inviting us to be in a relationship and part of a relationship is communication. Like two friends, there are things you have disclosed with one another that you and that friend of yours know. Or between a husband and a wife which intimate things are shared. God wants that. It’s part of His promise to us. To reveal things that are great and mighty which you have not known or realized.

But here’s the catch: get alone with God. Why? There’s this quote from one of my favorite authors, A.W Tozer, that always reminds me that at times, God’s revelations are too sacred for prying eyes or ears.

There are things too sacred for any eye but God’s to look upon. The curiosity, the clamour, the well-meant but blundering effort to help can only hinder the waiting soul and make unlikely, if not impossible, the communication of the secret message of God to the worshiping heart. (Radical Cross, p.35)

There are so many examples of people in the Bible that before God revealed great and mighty things for them; they needed to be alone with Him.

Abraham, though rich and fruitful in a foreign land, there was a yearning in Him that God only knew too well. Then the promise to fill in that yearning was revealed as Abraham walked with God (Genesis 15) and the promise of multitudes was revealed as ‘deep darkness fell’ upon his soul.

Jacob in the midst of all the people, possession and prominence he has and acquired there was still something missing. He only found it after spending the night alone and ‘wrestled’ with God (Gen. 32:22-31) and after the revelation of his new name; he was never the same again.

And who could forget our very Savior who knelt at the Garden and cried out to the Father a prayer of surrender? (Matt. 26:39) That though Jesus was with His beloved disciples, He could not be comforted from that deep sorrow that He spoke of this words, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Matt. 26:38).

Get alone with God. Listen for God wants to reveal His deepest secrets to a hungry heart and thirsty soul. Yet how can we be satisfied when we have already ‘feasted’ on what the world offers that we have lost appetite of what God is offering.

I always envision that invitation of God for us in a relationship with Him like that Wedding Banquet or Feast in Matthew 22:1-14. But what if before going to that feast you already eaten? You won’t really enjoy coz you've already lost your appetite. It’s just like eating ‘meryenda’ before lunch or dinner time. It will satisfy the hunger for a while but it never satisfies.

That’s what the world offers. A little bit of this. A little bit of that.

Examples would be Television, Internet, hobbies, work and even people. Most of the time, it's difficult for God to reveal Himself to us or even speak to us when we are overcrowded by the voice of the world. God's still small voice is usually lost as we chat our time away or spend it glued on our computer screens. I won't deny I too have fallen in the same state. 

I’m not saying we should stop doing anything but rather, let’s be very observant of what we feed ourselves. Never forget that we are created to be forever hungry with ‘eternity planted in the human heart’ (Ecc. 3:11), never to be satisfied.

Proverbs 15:14 (NLT)

A wise person is hungry for knowledge,
    while the fool feeds on trash.

As we respond to God’s invitation through daily prayer, there is that promise of Revelation that truly satisfies rather than the garbage the world offers.  

If prayer be as natural as breathing for those who truly walk with God, it's so natural at times we take it for granted. Come to think of it, even the fact that we are still breathing we take that so lightly, how much more prayer! 

But if we see it not just a way to tell God our daily need but also a daily invitation of walking with and knowing Him more. If we see prayer as an invitation to a life like a 'continual feast' (Proverbs 15:15); a place of refuge in times of storms and a moment where we receive revelation. We would not just be breathing. We would finally be living. 

Soli Deo Gloria!