July 5, 2009 Sermon: "Prayer, Power and God's Love"

Main Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21

On last Sunday, Pastor Bob hit upon several truths about the nature of prayer, how we pray in power, and how this is even possible because of the love God has for us. But there is one particular verse he talked about that I want to explore in this blog.

Ephesians 3:20-21 tells us that God is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. My question is -- do we actually limit our blessings with our prayers? Do we try to box God in? Think about it. Too often, we pray to God (usually only when we want something from Him), and in our prayers we bring a laundry list of things we want Him to do. Or, maybe it isn't a laundry list -- it's just one thing we continually beg God for, as if we really believe our constant nagging is going to exhaust God enough to give up and grant us what we want. It may have worked with our parents and grandparents, but that’s not how God operates.

Problem is -- what we're asking for is often so small and so insignificant when compared to God's plan for our lives that even if He grants our prayer, it’s meaningless from the perspective of eternity. God is capable of doing so much more for us than we can begin to imagine. God can do things in our lives that are truly transformational. But how do we ask for something that is too big for us to imagine?

Well, if we ever learn to listen as much as we talk, we may get an answer to that question. As Pastor Bob talked about on Sunday, this issue leads us to the topic of the true nature of prayer. Prayer is not a one-sided conversation where we dictate to God what we want Him to do. It is a dialog between us and Him. We talk; He talks.

But how do we know when God is talking to us? Have you ever heard God’s voice? Or, does God communicate with us through feelings? Does He let us know what he wants us to know through dreams? Does He communicate through coincidence, weird circumstances, or other “signs”? How do we know it is Him and not our psyche? We'll talk more about this in a future blog.

Please feel free to post your thoughts and questions on this topic. May God bless and keep each one of you....HGCF