If You're Not First You're Last

Put a group of guys in the woods for the day and two things will happen… when it’s light outside something will be built, and when it’s dark outside something will catch fire. We love to build things and take things apart. When I was a kid I loved working on my bike, building ramps, and making forts out in the woods.

We also love to fix things, and if something is broke and needs to be fixed, with the right tools and enough knowledge we can fix it.

I think this is the way we view prayer. The world is broke and needs to be fixed, so we view prayer as a tool and a means of fixing it.

We have to get out of this mindset! Prayer is not a tool that works, but it is part of a relationship with the almighty creator of the universe.

Christianity affirms that God is all powerful and all knowing, and when people begin to think through this they eventually ask the question, “Well, if God already knows and is going to do what he is going to do then why pray?” This is a legitimate question, but it is routed in an understanding of prayer as a tool.

God wants us to make petitions to him and ask him for things, but he wants us to do so in recognition that he is the one who provides all… he provides our meals, our clothes, and the air we breathe. He wants us to understand our dependency on him and he wants our faith to increase in him knowing that he will always provide what we truly need.

Our prayer life increases our trust in God, and our trust in God allows us to grow deeper in our relationship with him. In other words, it is not mechanical, it is relational.

A college student had a great question, and I think anyone outside of the box on Christianity would have something very similar. He asked why Christians argue so much and cause hurt and scarring with one another. Then he asked why human’s will (which he determined was the cause of arguing and fighting) overpowered their faith in God… shouldn’t faith in God keep us together and not tear us apart?

I basically wrote him a book for a response, and I’ll save you the wordiness, but it all starts with our pride. I explained how our beliefs come from a source, and those sources can be read into conservatively or liberally, and when something is left to interpretation people will have differing opinions on what it means. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone thinks theirs is right… if they didn’t they would get a new one. We argue because we think we're right.

Arguments are inevitable, but the way we come out on the back end reveals the power (or lack thereof) of our faith in God.

Faith isn’t something that you have or don’t have.

We all have faith, and it is continually increasing or decreasing. If you eat at McDonalds you have faith that the food was prepared right, because you really have no clue what happened behind those closed doors… unless you awkwardly try to peak through the little lamp warmer thing that they feed the food through. But the more you eat there the more your faith increases that your food will be prepared right.

Faith in God isn’t that simple, unlike food, we can’t see or touch God. But our faith in him is either increasing or decreasing all the time. My fear is that we visit fast food restraunts more than we truly visit with God.

When our faith is weak we find ourselves being divisive after arguments and unable to keep the body of Christ together. When our faith is strong we find ourselves reconciling after arguments and keeping our focus on the big picture of bringing God glory in all things.

So how do we increase our faith in God?

We pray… not as a tool, but as a relationship. It is the same thing as McDonalds… the more you go and don’t get food poisoned the more your faith increases in the way they prepare their food.
Well, the more you pray to God the more your faith increases that he will take care of you.

The adverse effect of this is that the less you pray the less dependent you will feel on God. Then the more independent you feel from God the more dependent you fell in yourself. Then the more you are dependent in yourself the more you fill yourself with pride. Then the more you fill yourself with pride the more you will find yourself entangled in sin.

Your pride robs God of his glory.

Why pray if god already knows? Because your lack of prayer will result in God being robbed of his glory, and that IS NOT something you want to stand before him and be held accountable for.
God has invited us into a relationship with himself, and prayer is a means to grow more intimate in that relationship.

Never stop praying.

I pray that our faith will continue to increase and that we will keep our focus on God’s glory.