Hosanna Restoration Church

Sometimes when the eyes of my understanding open up I am amazed at how simple some really sweet things are. As I was reading through the book of Revelation and I came to this verse referring to how the prayers of the saints were offered on the golden altar, I suddenly knew that one reason prayer is so important is because God really enjoys it!

There is a whole lot of praising going on in heaven and great declarations of how worthy God is, and well it is glorious as we enter into those choruses with them declaring how worthy the Lamb is and giving him glory and praise and honor, but something in me just shouted that God loves prayer. Of course prayer includes praise and thanksgiving and anything else that comes to our mind. I think that is why God likes it so much. Prayer is a choice we make and He likes to be chosen. Prayer is intended to be intimate communication between the chosen and the chooser!

Well, I am not sure that I can adequately communicate how this changed my attitude concerning prayer, but I need to try. Since my recent quest to love God I have been searching for ways that I can please Him more. I just want to make Him happy. I think that we often bounce between two attitudes. On the one hand many people act as though God must be really easy to please, and on the other some think that He is impossible to please. In a way, He is both. It is impossible to please Him without faith, but with faith all things are possible.

Previously I saw prayer as something that was important to me and for me. In other words, yes God wanted me to pray because it was good for me. I saw it as very beneficial, but if I really did not need anything in particular, it was easy to just throw up an, “I love you and You just do all those things you are so good at God. You are the best and etc.” Perhaps you can relate to this. I know there are lots of other instructions concerning prayer and I have followed them, but I must be honest and say that they were more on the order of the things I did because they were things I should do. If I wanted it to be well with me and God then I better do my part.

Well, not anymore! Now I see it as something that God likes. I see that it pleases Him and if I love Him then this is way I can love Him better. I see that it makes Him happy because it makes Him happy. He likes it! Of course it is still beneficial to me, but more importantly, He enjoys it. We might go so far as to say that prayer benefits God. It confirms that I love Him and trust Him and know that He is faithful. When I pray with this attitude He knows that I don’t need one thing but to be with Him and that all I really want is to make Him happy because I love Him so much. If He is overcome with generosity and blesses me…well I can live with that! But I really don’t care about that part as much as it tickles me that I am doing this for God and not just for me. Does this bear witness with you. Love prays!