talking_friend

Pray Continually…Talking with Your Friend
by Randall D. Kittle

One mark of friendship is that friends enjoy spending time together. It is never a problem getting together with your friends. When someone is your friend, you love their company so your thoughts are toward them and you want to be with them frequently. The problem in a friendship is not trying to find the time to get together; it is leaving once you have gotten together. The difficulty of a close friendship is getting other things done because you so enjoy just spending time together.

If we are true friends of God, it will be the same. We will desire to meet with Him in prayer on a regular, ongoing basis. We won’t have to be coerced or need someone to check up on our “prayer time” to see if we have “done our duty.” That is slavery … slavery to the rule-book. We have been called to friendship, not slavery. As friends of God, we should naturally desire those things. If you are not one of those who is so fond of His company that you cannot wait for the next opportunity to be with Him and share your heart with Him, you should ask yourself if you really are a friend of God.

When you have company over, you plan activities and entertainment. But when friends come over, you can just “hang out” together. There is a simple informality that happens with friends. You don’t have to entertain friends you can be yourself, warts and all. The pretense is gone.

That is the kind of relationship we are to have with the Lord — without pretense, without masks. Not some formal, regimented speech, but an ongoing, open discussion without secrets. (You don’t really have any secrets from God anyway, since He is all-knowing.) Every room of your heart should be open to Him. If you are God’s friend, there will be a relaxed simplicity in your communication with Him.

Walking With Your Friend
One of the ways my wife and I express our friendship is going for walks together. Often you can find us walking along the streets in our neighborhood. When it becomes bitterly cold, one of the things I miss the most are our walks together. Our walks are really not about doing, but about being. They are so wonderful because far more than merely getting some exercise or even doing something together, we are being together. As we talk, I clear my head and hear my wife’s heart. Often as we talk, the hurts as well as the hopes that have remained hidden in our hearts are expressed.

I believe this was God’s heart for prayer when He told us to “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). There are many other wonderful aspects of prayer — travailing prayer, prayers of repentance, intercession, prayers of prophetic proclamation — but none of these can truly be practiced on a continual, ongoing basis. God does not desire great actions or deeds from us in prayer … He desires us! This may sound overly simplistic, but remember, “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away” (Genesis 5:24). When we just spend time with God we bring Him pleasure. After all, that is the reason we were created!