Call to Me, and I will answer you
In Jeremiah 33.3, God says something remarkable, ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Praying to God works as a two-way communication. One that requires talking and listening. A powerful prayer life can be like a mysterious goal for many who feel they just don’t have the right words, or verbal skills, to pray the way they might have heard others pray. But that’s not what God desires, He says, ‘call to Me and I will answer you’.
God invites us to come boldly before His throne of Grace. He says, to ask and receive. He reminds those who seek Him, will find Him. And teaches us to pray without ceasing. Prayer is important and powerful.
Why would you want to pray? Well, God can give us fresh insight into a situation as we pray for it to change, and through our prayer we also change as our actions and reactions become aligned to God’s will.
Sometimes it may be hard to pray because we haven’t prayed for a while, or because we have ignored God for the most, or perhaps we think we have lived a less than perfect life. Maybe it’s simpler than that, with a can’t pray, won’t pray attitude.
But God has made a way for us through Jesus, so why not pray? If you were to just try praying, what could happen? Well, you might be surprised and God could answer your prayer.
God appreciates our efforts and will keep trying to talk to us, even on our terms if, or when, we mess up. Just look at the examples God provides in the Bible. At one point in history, the people didn’t seem too keen on God’s personal approach of talking to them, so He sends the world prophets to talk on His behalf. But the Bible records that the people didn’t want to listen to the prophets.
So, then the people told God they would prefer kings to rule over them, so God lets the world try what they called out to Him for. Still people mess God about and they weren’t happy with the king whom they chose.
So, then God’s perfect plan comes into reality with the birth of His Son, Jesus. Having just celebrated Jesus birth at Christmas, we will be familiar with how that went. But, Jesus came to show us the way to God the Father, to show us His love and help us understand that all who believed in Him should never perish but have everlasting life. Jesus came as the Light of the world, to show us God’s unconditional love. And, yet still people turned their backs on Him.
Then God gave us the Holy Spirit to comfort, lead and guide us into all truth. But people still won’t accept Him, and want to do things their way, not God’s, so the Holy Spirit is shunned.
But God in His love, never gives up, and He would love if we didn’t give up on Him and through prayer were able to start talking to Him more. Exercising our right to pray – which just means to talk to God – is to take Him up on His offer for a personal connection to Him as we chat, talk, discuss things that worry us, concern us, make us happy, or things that we hope for others. It’s just the same as having a conversation with a friend or family member.
Prayer is only a breath away; it’s the first step in restoring our faith through an open invitation from God Himself ‘call to me, and I will answer you’.
Prayer
Dear God, this is me praying to You, just simply asking for You to give me peace when I pray, to give me hope when I call out to You for things that affect me and bless those I will pray for now [talk to God about anything or person that comes to you].
In the Name of Jesus Christ, amen.
