Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: James 5:13-18 and Matthew 11:25-30

As we consider our call to prayerfulness throughout this week, it would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that prayer is always and only about asking great things from God and seeing God do great and miraculous things in response to our great faith.

Instead, in Matthew 11, Jesus presents us with the beautiful thought that the heart of prayer is more about arriving home from a very hard day’s work in the Kingdom to find rest and refreshment in deeply connected fellowship with the Lord. He said: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’

The heart of prayer, according to Jesus, is more about leaning in to intimacy with Him like little children so that we can receive His rest, hear His heart, receive His revelation and deepen our connectedness to Him. And then, out of that deep connectedness, empowered by our relationship with Him, we go out again to take up our Kingdom work “yoked” to Jesus in such a way that Jesus provides the guidance and the strength for each day’s challenges.

In some ways then, prayer is breathing in and breathing out. Prayer allows us to breathe in the love, power, presence and peace of the Lord in deep fellowship with Jesus; and it allows us to breathe out the love, power, presence and peace of Jesus into the world for which we pray and in which we do our work of establishing the Kingdom.

Thank You, Lord, for the beautiful gift of prayer that opens up a world of intimacy with You. Lord, teach me to pray! Amen.