The Path to Divine Influence

Posted by Elizabeth Welsh on August 17, 2016 · 2 Comments 

What do you consider the most important component in your relationship with God?

If you’re thinking communication, I concur. The most amazing thing about our relationship with God is that it is personal. Jesus made this possible when on the cross, He paid the price that allows us to be forgiven and cleansed from the one thing that separates us from God, sin. When we receive His gift, we are free to step confidently into the presence of a Holy God and call Him Abba Father. That’s what it means to be born again, not physically but spiritually into the family of God. (John 3:1-8)

As new babes in Christ, the first thing we need to learn is how to talk with God in order to walk with Him. When we draw near to Him to talk with Him, it’s as if He lifts us up and settles us on His lap. And then somehow our Abba Father puts the rest of the world on hold while He listens to us and through His Word and the power of His Spirit, He pours into us comfort, wisdom and life-changing instructions to help us on the path He sets before us.

How do we describe our communication with God? It’s supernatural, yet earthy. It’s powerful, yet realistic. It’s simplistic, yet profound. It’s what we call prayer.

Why is prayer so important in our lives? Because it paves our way to intimacy with God. Prayer is the path to everything from redemption and the forgiveness of sin to resurrection and the release of the power to become more than we can be and do more than we can do on our own.

Pascal, the physicist and philosopher once said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum within the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but by the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”

We were created to commune with God. And we will never be content or fulfilled until we connect personally with the God of the impossible and the author of the improbable.

Prayer is the first step toward understanding and embracing God’s grace. According to the Greek, the word grace means “the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life” In other words, there is nothing we can do to merit God’s favor. But we do have the privilege of choosing to abide in His presence and to invite Him to do the “doing” in and through us.

A few years ago, I started a study on the relevance and the importance of prayer. If you’ll join me, I’d like to explore the subject further. If you’re like me, I often wonder if I’m praying enough or the right way. However, something tells me that’s not the issue at all.

Prayer truly is the path to God’s divine influence. By faith, let’s walk that path together. Shall we? Meanwhile, if you have any thoughts on prayer you’d like to share or to cover in our time together, please feel free to leave a comment.

Note: In my last post, I asked for your prayers for our grandson Curtis who was raising the funds to spend a year ministering to college students in Sweden. God has answered our prayers and he is on his way! For those of you who prayed and/or sent financial support, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

P. S. I’m sure Curtis would appreciate your prayers in two areas: *for his time in Sweden to be fruitful and productive. *And while he’s there, for God to clearly unfold His plan for his future.

Filed under Food for Thought · Tagged with Abba Father, communication, Curtis Tyler, forgiveness, grace, path of divine influence, personal, prayer, relationship with God, Sweden