I’ve always loved this passage from Proverbs 2:
1 My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding,
3 and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom,
and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
What a powerful message of hope! How often I am completely overwhelmed in my thought life with all the pressures of the day. In spite of that I will spend hours alone in my head worrying and fretting without ever letting another person know or telling God about it. Sure God knows, but rather than pray and ask for help or advice from Him, I just churn the worries in my heart. And, rather than let anyone know how troubled I am, I instead demonstrate the exact opposite – I have it all together – and with that charade I prevent people from lending a helping hand, word, or comfort because they have no clue I need anything at all.
Notice the words from Proverbs 2 again. They aren’t words to be taken lightly. God tells us that we need to cry aloud, call out, and search intently for wisdom. We need to search for it as though it were a treasure of gold and silver. I don’t know about you, but if I knew there was a treasure of gold waiting for me to find it, I would search for it diligently until I found it. UNTIL I FOUND IT.
Why don’t we do that with our prayers? Why don’t we pray until something happens (P.U.S.H.)? And, why don’t we pray with our family and friends more? Do we really believe in prayer or are we just believers in fate?
We’ve been around the world as missionaries and prayed loudly and diligently in groups of people for God’s help, but now that we are back in Arkansas I find it hard to say to Tara, “Let’s stop doing everything and pray together about our next steps, for that family in need, and for our ministry.” When I get together with a friend why in the world would we spend the entire time talking about our favorite sports team and not take anytime to cry out together for God’s wisdom for our lives?? People might look at us as though we were crazy, but who really is crazy? The person who acts like they have it all together when they don’t or the person who doesn’t have it together, admits it, and who seeks help? What better way to seek help than to seek it from the God who has every answer?
If you’ve read this far, please keep me accountable. I want to be a man of prayer. I want to pray together with you. And ask me if I’m praying with Tara. I hope that she and I will begin praying together every day, out loud, and as though our lives depend on it. Because they do. And yours does, too.
Pray together.
