“Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.” Matthew 6:6 Msg
I started my career as a primary school teacher, teaching 4-5 year olds. I quickly learned that young children can get easily distracted and that my biggest challenge was holding their attention! One thing I noticed was that if I could maintain eye contact with them they were usually listening to me but if they looked away for a second I had normally lost them to whatever interesting was happening out of the window. So I decided to start using the phrase “ Your ears won’t work if your eyes are not looking at me!” One day a parent came up to me quite frustrated by how seriously her son had taken this statement. Apparently he would no longer entertain a conversation with his Mum unless he had her full, undivided attention as his teacher had told him her ears weren’t working if he couldn’t see her eyes!!
There is an important point behind all of this. Where we focus will determine how well we can listen. This is true not just in our relationships with others but also in our relationship with the Lord. He wants us to give him our full attention because he knows that only in that place will we truly start to connect with him and receive the life, peace, joy and freedom He died to bring us. As today’s verse tells us, He wants us to step away from all the distractions, all those things crowding in for our attention and to find a quiet place, where our eyes will no longer be tempted to drift from him. Then when we come before him He wants us to come simply and honestly. What does this look like? Well I believe it means come as you are, not as you’d like to be, not as you think you ought to be, but just as you are. When we do this the Lord can help us because there is no pretence, no mask, no playing games. He wants us to be real with him. The truth is He knows it all anyway! The things we might feel ashamed of, the things that we think will displease him, the times we think we have let him down. He sees it all and He loves us the same. Nothing separates us from his love! He wants us to trust him enough that we can come humbly not relying on our good works but totally dependent on his grace. Whenever we do this the true work can begin, this is where the exchange can take place. In this time of intimacy and humility as we surrender ourselves to his mercy we can let go of all the stuff that is weighing us down.
So what actually happens when we pray. To properly understand it we need to look at what the word means: The word pray, ‘proseúxomai' is made up of two words: prós, "towards, exchange", and ‘euxomai’, "to wish, pray.” Literally translated it means to interact with the Lord by switching human wishes (ideas) for His wishes as He imparts faith ("divine persuasion.”) Therefore as we pray our heart connects with the Father. We come to the cross and give Jesus our mistakes, our insecurities, our worries, our fears, our pride and our pains. We exchange the weight and the burden, the disappointment and the frustration, and in its place we receive the wholeness, and the shalom of the Father made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus!
Prayer is a place of deep connection where you receive His grace, His love, His perspective in place of the weight and worry of the world. Come to him with confidence today and be expectant that your burdens will be lifted and replaced with his peace!
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Unshakeable Hope Series – Exchange Church Belfast 2021