Our Greatest Privilege

By Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

Prayer is our heavenly Father’s gift to connect us with Him and with His power source. It is sort of like our speed dial to God. We don’t have to look him up, find an excuse to talk to him or go through any sort of defense mechanisms. He is always available on our prayer speed dial and what it all boils down to is that prayer is our greatest privilege. Any good we want to do, prayer helps us do it better. Imagine the difference between an electric light and an oil lamp. Except for the beautiful ambiance of an oil lamp, there is no comparison. Just as we get more light from electricity than from an oil lamp, any good we want to do, prayer helps us do it better because it connects us with God as our power source.

The primary or first privilege of prayer is being able to commune with God. We were created for fellowship with God. Quiet talks, yes. Also praise, thankfulness, desperation, anger, etc. It’s all communion with God and that’s what he wants from us. Prayer is not only a duty, but a privilege and a blessing from God! On the other hand, sin is what separates us from God and destroys that communion. That’s why God hates sin so much—because it hurts the people he loves. But prayer is also God’s solution to that vexing problem. Prayer enables us to do away with sin by claiming Christ’s death and resurrection for our own salvation, enabling us to experience blissful communion with God.

We do need to recognize, however, that not all communion with God is blissful. Sometimes He needs something done that is really, really hard and He asks us to do it. The best example is Jesus coming to earth and his subsequent death on the cross. He didn’t want to face death any more than you or I would. But Jesus knows God’s way is always right and He was being asked to do something that just had to be done—something no one else could do. So he did it. Christ needs to be our example, knowing God will be just as dependable for us as he was with the Lord Jesus Christ when he was here on earth as a human. If there is something difficult God wants us to do, he will empower us to do it.

This brings up the second privilege of prayer, to accomplish God’s Will. That’s what Jesus told us to do in what we call the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:10) for God’s Kingdom to come and God’s Will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. This phrase should be in most of our prayers, because God accomplishes his will at least partially through the prayers of faithful persons. We not only try to do his will, we help to bring it about through our prayers.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Pray also for me,…” (Ephesians 6:19) and this shows us another important privilege of the ministry of prayer—to work together with God. Prayer is the best method of Divine-human cooperation—our primary way to connect with God and His power. God gives us wisdom, guidance, empowerment, protection and many other helps and we give him our love and a physical body through which he can work. That’s a really good trade-off.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.

     

Gratitude

by Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

Heavenly Father, as you know, I have been serving you now for more than fifty-five years and I just want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart for every year you've given me. I suppose, in the back of my mind I have always thought I had given those years to you, but today as I consider them, I am overwhelmed with thankfulness because I know that by comparison I have given you nothing at all. I have only received.

I received the privilege of being a part of creation's most powerful army—the Army of the Lord. There I learned to use your holy weapons of love, compassion, gentleness, kindness, self-control, to name only a few, weapons to be used against those spiritual enemies that war against our souls. I am amazed at how effective they are, but also at how difficult it has been and sometimes still is to learn to, and remember to, use them.

You, Lord, have given me strength in my times of weakness, wisdom in my perplexity, guidance when I had lost, or was about to lose, my way, and through it all a sense of joy at being a beloved child of God. You never made me feel guilty for being less than perfect and you taught me that when guilt and condemnation were heaped upon me it was the enemy, not You, who dumped on me, and it was you, Lord, not the enemy, who restored me to confidence and joy in your Holy Spirit.

This is not to say it has always been easy. There were times when I felt like quitting, but acting on those feelings was never a real consideration. Even in the difficult times I knew you were with me and that made it all, not only worthwhile, but the source of a great satisfaction. To be a servant of the most high God, the only true and living God, makes any hardship insignificant.

These many years of serving you Lord, have been to me, a blessing beyond words. In the distant past I thought my service was my gift to you, but through the years I have learned that my service was really your gift to me. You didn’t need me. You could have done it all without me, but you gave me the gift of your marvelous Presence, allowing me to serve with you and thus have a significance far beyond my own ordinary abilities.

I can only ask that for all the remainder of my life, whether it be lengthy or brief, that I might have the high privilege of serving you God, in every moment that I know, with every breath that I breath, and with every ounce of my strength. If I can do so, that will be my inexpressible joy. 

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.