Faith Venture

I was teaching on this theme of life-giving water, or the river of life in Revelation, and thinking of approaching the picture in prayer. In one of the traditions (or maybe more than one) of prayer and meditation I’ve practiced, the teachers discourage images or thinking in pictures. I disagree. I’ve found it very helpful to read a story and meditate by putting myself in that picture. My trips to Israel have been very helpful in that regard now seeing the actual places (albeit changed from thousands of years ago, I’m sure).

So, do you pray by thinking of yourself and the things you are demanding God to do for you? Or do you set aside time to see what God’s demanding of you? In terms of this image of drinking life-giving water, I’ve found it a good way to do the latter. Meditate on being filled with the water that gives life. That’ll open you to listening to what God wants for you.

A preacher talking on leadership suggested listening to what the people are praying for. If they are always petitioning things for themselves or the usual list of sick people but are not asking God to help them talk to someone about God or find their ministry, then your church may have a problem.

He’s right. Open yourself up to God, then help others do the same. It’ll change your church–and you.

This entry was posted on March 3, 2010 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Christianity, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.