An Audience of One - Inspire A Fire

1 Samuel 1:10 She, greatly distressed, prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.

When Hannah prayed for a son, it was not the effortless prayer mumbled before a meal or the half-hearted request spluttered in the midst of a prayer group. It was the urgent, desperate prayer of a woman in distress. Though silent to the ears of Eli the priest, Hannah’s petition before the Lord was earsplitting. She was certain in her request as she “poured out [her] soul” (1 Samuel 1:15).

So it is when we pray for the deepest desires of our heart: it should not be the simple, carefree exchange of friends on a park bench; it should be the wholehearted, desperate plea of a beggar in search of sustenance.

Health. Life. Forgiveness. Safety. Growth. Help. Provision.

We should not be afraid to plead with our God. The King of Kings has granted us an audience. Why would we be anything less than forthright?

One awesome reality of God’s goodness in our lives is displayed in the endowment of prayer. Prayer does not just exist as a communication tool for God—it is an instrument for us, as God’s children, to speak with our Heavenly Father. Prayer, one of the greatest disciplines of the Christian life, was never intended to be viewed as a duty at all, but as a gift.

Prayer affords us the opportunity to enter the throne room of grace and pour our petitions onto the lap of our Heavenly Father. Why would we choose to do anything else?

I rise before dawn and cry for help; I wait for Your words (Psalm 119:147).

Photo by sparksoffire

Trisha

Publicly, Trisha is a well-established editor for a mammoth corporation. Privately, however, she sorts and stacks, tosses and tallies, pitches and plunders. She devotes serious time and energy to a hobby that would make goddesses like Martha Stewart and Julie Morgenstern blush. She is a home manager. That, and she loves to write. She just published her first book--Trust, Hope, Pray.