Journey into Lightl

I ‘ve never met a person who thought they talked to God enough. Why don’t we? I suppose it stems from our desire and habit of living life without God’s help.

But In the last ten years, I have grown in my desire and capacity to pray and talk to God more. Why? Probably the biggest reason is that I know better how much I need his help to handle life’s challenges.

For example, as of yesterday, I am facing a wait on the results of tests to determine why my chest x-ray looked suspicious. Was it just scar tissue or was it something else the doctors saw. Why should I worry? I’m going to heaven no matter what.

But I still feel scared. How can talking to God help me deal with this?

This is how. Last night I asked God to give me some words to live by–so I could get a good night of sleep. The verse that came to mind was, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). Clinging to these promises, I slept well last night.

Why Talk to God More?

There are many reasons to talk to God more–the following are three of the most important:

The first one is that we may grow into a more intimate relationship with him. He created us for intimacy. He loves us and created us for his purposes and pleasure. He enjoys it when we talk to him.

Another reason to talk to God more is so he can help us handle life. We were not meant to handle our problems alone. We are only fooling our self if we think we can do a better job alone than with God’s help. “Cast your burdens upon the Lord, and he will sustain you” (Psalm 62:8).

A third important reason to talk to God more is to change the world. God says,

“The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like [yours], and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months” (James 5:16-17, NIV).

I assume you are like me and would like to have a better world to live in. This could be a world with better government, less disease, and more people finding purpose to life. If God can use the prayers of Elijah to bring about a drought that lasted three and one-half years, and controls the decisions of presidents (Proverbs 21:1), he can certainly use our prayers to change the world.

How Do We Talk to God More?

Talking to God more is not the problem, but is a symptom of the problem. Not praying much is not just a weakness but reveals our desire to shut God out of our lives and our lack of confidence that he will help us if we did ask him. To talk more to God, we need God to change us so that we rely more on the truth that “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

We also need perseverance in talking to God. He doesn’t always answer us the first time. He wants us to keep asking until we get a clear “Yes, “No,” or “Wait.” (Matthew 7:7).

Finally, we need God to show us what we are truly depending on to make life work. Is it our own wisdom and fortitude? Is it our managerial job we worked so hard to get and keep? Or is it good circumstances that usually come our way?

Do these things keep us from talking to God to make life work? Only God really knows, but we can ask him to reveal our heart to us and he will (Psalm 139:23-24). And may we have the grace to realize that God can do a better job than these idols in meeting our needs.

May the scales fall from our eyes and we realize how much God wants to bless and empower our lives, if we would only talk more to him. The writer of the book of Hebrews says,

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16, NIV).