NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

January 8

Scripture focus: “Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11:1

As we prepare for a year of devoted living, it might help to recall how Jesus devoted himself to talking with God. He prayed often and sometimes long. He thanked God for stuff. Sometimes he confessed things. He expressed his love for God and the kingdom of God. He didn’t hesitate to ask God questions or make requests either. Jesus modeled all these dimensions of healthy, intimate conversation when he taught his disciples how to pray using what we commonly refer to as “The Lord’s Prayer.”

But any married couple knows (if they’ve been married longer than one week) that the best conversations are exchanges not monologues – and so it is with prayer. Peter received a divine vision (Acts 10:9-10), Paul was told where to travel (Acts 16:9) and John got a revelation (Rev. 1:9-10).

Isaiah reminds us to wait on the Lord when he says, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). The word “hope” actually could be translated – “tarrying,” “waiting for,” “to expect,” or to “look patiently.”
It seems that God has basic principles about how he relates to us that are consistent and unchanging. Take grace, for instance. God has always been the first to initiate loving relationship with his children. In the area of grace and mercy, God always goes first.

This same principle is true with prayer. Prayer is initiated by God. William Meninger says, “Prayer begins with God, not with us….The invitation has to come from god – what comes from us is the response. When we ‘begin to pray’ or think we are beginning to pray, we should be explicitly aware that, whether we are emotionally aware of it or not, God has initiated this prayer. The invitation has already come from Him, the prayer has already begun, the grace is present and all we have to do is respond!”*

On those days when we are moved to prayer, may we remember that God moved us. I love it when my husband gives me his full, undivided attention. How much more amazing to think about how awesome it is to know that holy God also attends to us. Our brokenness does not escape his attention for one moment.

May we all awake to the privilege and possibility of conversation with God.
I pray that we will increase our consciousness, so that we might be aware of God’s call to us – “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened…”


*Meninger, “Aspects of Prayer,” in Word and Spirit: A Monastic Review (Still River, Mass.: St. Bede’s Publications, 1982), pp.147-149.


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