Welcome to Wisdom

By Donovan Parker

I've been working on developing my relationship with Christ, more specifically my prayer life. Prayer not only BUILDS your relationship with God, but it can be viewed as the avenue to access the power of God. So one thing that I have really been trying to commit my focus on is how to reverence God. I have this complex that makes me not even want to send text messages with (God, the Word, Christ) beginning with lower case letters. Sure this may be weird, but it is my goal to be this conscious of the honor that God's name deserves in my daily actions, thoughts, and words. "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer." - Psalms 19:14

I feel even more pressed to come correct to God in prayer; He provides us with the greatest privilege in that we can talk to Him whenever we like AND He hears us all. In Bible study, we talked about different elements of prayer and I found out some things that I was missing in my prayer life. Beforehand, I interpreted being able to come to God whenever I needed to mean - however I needed. There is nothing wrong with this because this is what God asks of us … “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14 BUT …

I challenge you to look at it in a different light. Let’s take the Lord’s Prayer and look at the opening lines. We should view Christ as our leading example. Matthew 6:9 says “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” (In this particular verse, Jesus is teaching the disciples how to pray.) How then would there be much difference in what He expects of us? The term “hallowed” as defined according to Merriam-Webster means Holy, Consecrated; Sacred, Revered.

Throughout the Bible, the idea of reverencing God can be similarly paralleled to “fearing God.”

Psalms 111:9-10

⁹He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name. ¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

Welcome to wisdom.

Finally, James 5:16 says ¹⁶Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Effectual: producing or able to produce a desired effect (Importance: We NEED God to not only hear BUT ANSWER our prayers.)

Fervent: exhibiting or marked by great intensity of feeling : zealous (alludes to the POWER that is accessed through Prayer).

In short, take the time to honor and reverence God when you first begin to pray. It will build your relationship with Him, and give you access to the power that He wants to share with you.