In the weeks leading up to our first National Foursquare Family Prayer Meeting on November 5, we have asked guest contributors to share their perspective on the value of prayer. Today, Randy Remington, senior pastor of Beaverton Foursquare Church encourages us to develop more intentional intimacy with God as we pray.
-Glenn Burris, Jr.
My wife and I have a close relationship, but we have learned something regarding our closeness: it is cultivated and maintained primarily through our times spent alone in uninterrupted, prioritized conversation speaking with and listening to each other.
However, if the only conversations that we have are on the go, on the go in the every day situations of life like “what is for dinner, who is going to pick up the kids, what time do you have to be there, etc.” Then feelings of separateness begin to settle in. There is a difference between that kind of conversation and the kind of talk that happens when we arrange for a baby-sitter and go and sit in a restaurant and talk until they kick us out. One has to do with dealing with the randomness and stuff of our life as partners. The other has to do with intimate connection and relationship in our marriage.
Prayer is talking to God about the stuff of your life, but it is also about connecting with Him on an intimate level. A good lesson to learn is that busyness is incompatible with intimacy. Why is this so? Because the very thing necessary for love and closeness with another is time and time is something that busy people don’t have. Getting alone with God prioritizes our relationship with Him and don’t forget–Jesus said that the Father rewards that priority! The Bible encourages us to look unto Jesus and as we do, you’ll see that:
- Jesus taught us this practice of prioritizing alone time with the Father.
- Jesus lived this practice of consistent time alone with the Father.
- Jesus was rewarded with unbroken fellowship with the Father.
Let’s be like Jesus!
“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” -Matthew 6:6 (NIV)
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By: Randy Remington, senior pastor of Beaverton Foursquare Church
