Affection in Prayer

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Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. The best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. So Father's Day is tomorrow, and today on Encouraging Prayer, we're going to take a special look at what it means to call God Father and the difference that makes in our prayers. Whether you had a good example for a father or not, God wants to draw us into the kind of relationship where we really are at home with Him as our Father. And Jesus made this clear when He said in John 14-23 that if we love Him and keep His teaching, that He and the Father will love us and make their home with us.

And by that, He meant right here, right now. And it's important for us to understand what that's like, not just theologically, you know, as that happens through the personal work of the Holy Spirit, but what does this look like and feel like on a daily basis? Yeah, and we really do, because there's nothing like being a child of God. And this is more than a feeling. It really goes deeper than that, doesn't it, James? You know, that's why when we look at what it really means to pray, it helps to understand this whole relational aspect. At the heart of it, it is about relationship. And sometimes we have trouble seeing our way through to that because, you know, we can just get so involved as we go through the day talking with God about requests or answers, or we can get tripped up on why an answer we so desperately wanted for something good didn't come, and then we can start to reason, maybe God is farther away than we think He is, if He's even there at all.

It's natural for us to go there. But when we look at something like, and we've talked about this as well, the number of times Jesus refers to God as Father, over 100 times more than the entire Old Testament, then you see that He's calling us to something that's very, very special. And if we realize this, that God loves us tenderly like that, it's absolutely revolutionary for the way we pray. Because a God who loves us like this isn't distant. He doesn't want to keep us at arm's length, even though the circumstances we encounter in this world can often cause us to think that way.

So let's talk about working this out in practical ways as we go through the day. Understanding that God really wants a relationship with us helps us want to pray because, you know, it helps us understand that we are wanted. Again, think of the closeness Jesus demonstrated when He prayed, Abba, Father, it's an expression of affection. And I think a lot starts right there. I wonder if we don't bring the concept of affection into our relationship with God enough. I know this is an area where God is working on me, and it's so tender, it can sound sentimental, but we really need to talk about it. Because if you think about it, affection is such an important part of our lives.

I think that's one reason people have so turned to pets when the family has become so fractured. Because they offer us this unconditional love. And yet, when you talk about unconditional love, where does that come from?

It comes from God. So do we tell God that we love Him? Or are we expressive to Him when we pray?

Whether with our words or emotions or our bodies, in whatever way we may be wired. This morning as I was praying, I ran out of words, and I was just down on my knees by the sofa, and I put my head on the sofa as a way of just putting my head on Him, if you will. Just loving Him, physically being affectionate. Because my heart was hungry for Him beyond the power of words to express.

And again, I know that this sounds a little funny to people, and I don't say this also to try to sound holier than I am or anything like that. It's just because really I realize how desperately I need Him, how easily I mess up if I'm not close. So the question is, what are those ways, where are those places where we can set our hearts free to just love Him? It certainly seems a parallel to the way I feel towards my own kids, right? Like when I haven't heard from them in a few weeks, which seems to happen as they get older more and more, that wow, and we can finally connect in some way.

Other than text, by the way, I really prefer a phone call, or at least I would love to see them face to face. But when that happens, just to hear what's going on in their life and sense their delight in the relationship. Yeah. If you think about it, maturing in God is the very opposite of maturing as a human being. You know, because as our kids mature, they become more independent. But as we mature in our relationship with Jesus and with the Father and with the Spirit, really, we're becoming more dependent, aren't we? I mean, it's that, you know, I really want to hear from you kind of thing. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour, I need you.

But it's more than every hour. You know, I was, this morning, as I was doing the same thing, I was praying and trying to understand. And I began to read in 1 Samuel where Hannah, Eli thought she was drunk because she's just moving her lips. Right. But her heart was desperate, desperate for that relationship and the sense of being poor in spirit that would lead you to that place where she was.

And then I saw something I'd never seen before, that in the book of Acts, right, they thought that the disciples were drunk, as Eli thought that Hannah was drunk. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And what a connection.

Yeah. It's a great observation because, again, there's that effusive demonstration of whatever it may be, again, affection, passion, love. And if we're not going there, then something is wrong. You know, and I'm thinking a lot of listeners are like me that in the morning we can get there to some extent.

But man, you know, in the 16th Psalm, David said somehow or another, you kept the Lord always before him. That is something I'm working on. Amen, man.

That's the goal, isn't it? But that really is the challenge that we face. So, you know, again, talking about dependence, why don't you close us out with a prayer that we will go there, that we will grow there, if you will, into this increasing dependence on you. Yes, Father, we love you and we pray that you would show us, you know, just how to pray more of where we feel you and throughout the day so that we feel connected and at your right hand we won't be shaken. Lord, I pray that through this Father's Day we would think and process what it is, how wonderful it is that we have a Father in heaven, that we were chosen before the world began to be your sons and daughters. And I pray you'd help us to feel it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.