As an avid coffee drinker this came as a surprise to me. I suspect that this will surprise you. I am not sure if I would ever try this, especially since nowadays coffee comes in paper cups with plastic lids.
Coffee with God (part 3)
My third and last entry on having coffee with God (spending time with God)
Sometimes our conversations with God resemble a Frappuccino in that we want choices and we rattle off a list of needs and wants.
———- Sits down again ———
Hey God, so obviously you know my situation, but just incase you missed something here is a list of things that I would like for you to do for me. Take your time… no rush but I put them in order of importance so if you can take care of the first one that would be great!
Thanks! Amen
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The bible says that we should not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Phillipians 4:6
God is not and should not be treated like a credit card, where we pull it out whenever we need to get something. He should not be looked at as the person who is there to fulfill our every whim and desire. Praying to Him is not to come a present a list of wants and needs is more than that. Imagine you going up to an uncle or aunt that you hardly see and you have no idea which side of the family they fit in. When you see them the first thing you do is pull out a list of what you want them to give you. Isn’t that ridiculous? But that is how we treat God sometimes. We hardly have a relationship with Him but when we see Him or come to Him is to give Him a list of things.
The reason we pray is not to so that we can receive things or as a result of things that we have or get, we pray because this is how we have a time of intimacy and communion with God. It is about trust, knowing that when we ask God He does answer, He does care and He knows our needs before we ask.
When we don’t pray you know what happens? Nothing… nothing happens. When we pray heaven and earth move. You don’t believe me? When Moses prayed to God, God parted the red seas to rescue His people. When Joshua prayed the sun and moon stopped for whole a day, when Elijah prayed it did not rain for three years, when David prayed He found refuge and His strong tower, because Daniel prayed he was delivered from the Lions Den, when Jonah prayed inside the belly of the whale the whale spit him out and setting on the right path, when Jesus prayed Lazarus was brought back to life, as the disciples prayed the Holy Spirit came upon them with power… there is power in prayer, but only when our relationship with God is genuine, is true, is real and is based on love.
——— Sit back down –
God, am sorry, am sorry that I seem to continue to do the wrong thing. I try my hardest but I just seem to fail more than I care to admit. I need you, I need your help, I need you to walk with me, to talk to me, to guide me.
You say you love me, its just hard for me to believe that you love me despite of all my mess ups all my imperfections above all my failures. Sometimes is hard to believe that you are here that you want to be with me, to sit here and spend time with me. Honestly sometimes I wonder if you understand me or if you are bored listening to all my junk. But there is something I know, that you have never cancelled our time together here, that you have never not showed up, that you have never not helped. You have always been here, waiting, listening, looking for me and ready to tell me that you love me. Thank you.
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1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for that is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
How can we rejoice when we are hurting? When things are falling apart? Because we can come to God in prayer and He will always be there for us, He will always have time for you, He wants you to talk to him. Lets rejoice knowing that when we are in the midst of our storms, God is there to be our refuge and strong tower and ever present help in our times of need – so pray continually? Does this mean that all we do is pray, that prayer will become an all consuming activity? No, not necessarily, I believe that this means that we need to constantly be aware of the presence of God. We need to live, function and operate as if God is always with you, as if God is always there. Being aware of the presence of God changes your whole perspective and how you engage life as a whole. Prayer is not just talking to God but is also listening to God and God talks in many different ways. He speaks through His word, through other people and through nature, but the questions still comes back to – How is your relationship with God?
Is your relationship such that you have a cup of coffee with Jesus on a daily basis? Or is your relationship such that you really don’t have coffee with Him. Do you feel like you can approach Him with confidence or is he just left sitting there waiting for you?
Coffee with God (part 2)
I like to drink coffee, for no other reason than the taste of it. Especially if it’s lite and sweet. Others might like it with no milk, no sugar or with creamer. In fact there are many ways to prepare a cup of coffee. Though my preference is lite and sweet with milk, I occasionally like to change it up a bit.
I remember when my wife and I were dating. We would plan to spend a day together and maybe take a walk in the park, watch a movie and/or participate in a church function. Then afterwards we would spend more time together. I would leave to go home at about 10pm and get home in an hour. After putting away my coat and getting comfortable I would pick up the phone and call her. If you were to ask me about our conversations and what we spoke about for such a long time I would not be able to tell you. I don’t know what we spoke about for such a long time. All I know is that if our conversations became repetitious and lacked substance the relationship would have fizzled out and I would not be including her in this post.
I am calling this type of communication the Decaf, because we need to have some substance, some oomph in our relationship with God.
Can you imagine if this is the way we communicated with God?
Lord thank you for everything, thank you for all that you done. Thank your for hmmm my family and friends and everything. Lord thank you for who you are…
How am I doing? Well, I okay oh and thank you for that, thank you for all that you done, for everything.
Awkward Silence –
But yeah did I mention that I want to thank you God for everything, for all that you are doing, for all that you have done, for who you are.
Some expert say that if something is done for more than 21 days it becomes a habit, a routine. Sometimes our conversations with God become a routine. This can be good and bad at the same time. It is good that we take time to spend with God and that we do it consistently. It’s bad when what we do consistently becomes a routine. We pray the same way for the same things all the time. We sit down and pray for breakfast “Lord thank you for this food, thank you for providing and bless the less fortunate, Amen” pray for lunch, “Lord thank you for this food, thank you for providing and bless the less fortunate, Amen” pray for dinner, “Lord thank you for this food, thank you for providing and bless the less fortunate, Amen”
We can and should break out of this routine but how? When we begin to think and believe that we are speaking to a person, when we think about who you are speaking to, God, the creator of the world, that one that made all of this and that made you. The one that never changes, that is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Alpha an Omega, the one that love us so much that He gave His only son to die for us in the cross so that we can have eternal life with Him in heaven. When we start to think about who we are speaking to, praying to, things begin to change. My prayer time, my time with God is much more different. Is not about what am I doing for God, but is all about being who God created me to be. It is not about repeating words that lack meaning and substance. Is about love and a relationship with the one who gave it all.
When we establish a strong and meaningful relationship with Him then we can hold on to Hebrew 4:16 –
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
This is how then we can approach God when it comes to prayer. We can come to His throne of grace with confidence, confident that He will hear our prayers, confident that we can communicate with Him, confident that because our relationship is strong and healthy He will not only listen but also help because He is not just a mysterious force, a supernatural entity, He is not a spiritual entity that does not care, or would prefer no to be bothered. He is our creator, He is our father our Abba. He is the one that sent His son to die for us so that we can have a relationship with Him. His son was sacrificed so that we can come and sit and have a cup of coffee with Him, spend time with Him and be in an intimate and loving relationship with Him where we not only speak to Him but He speaks to us!!!
Why do we pray? We pray because prayer works, we pray because through prayer we find the strength, the wisdom and the courage to face this world.
Romans 12:2 says Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Yes, we will encounter problems, we will face trails, we will go through situations that will wear on us. The answer to all this is prayer. Come to God in prayer.
Coffee with God (part 1)
Last month I talked about how having a daily cup of coffee with God is vital to our growth as a believer. In other words spending time with God in meditation and prayer is essential to cultivating a healthy communication and relationship with God. I liken different types of coffees to some of the most common ways in which we end up praying.
Prayer boils down to simply having a conversation with God. There are several ways to approach prayer and equally numerous things we pray for. Many of us, including myself, overlook the fact that prayer means having a conversation with God, but in the course of time we end up doing all the talking and neglect to listen.
The fist type of prayer i would like to present is the Espresso prayer.
Have you ever been in a conversation where you are counting the minutes till it ends because you have other things to do? And you have been trying to avoid this person cause you now they like to talk and go deep and like to share. You are there and you are talking but cutting your sentence short, nodding and not wanting to answer cause you know if you do that can lead to another question or more conversation and you have so much to do. You fidget, you move your body, your turn sideways and then you look at your watch or cellphone… you are thinking “Come on get the hint!” I need to go.
Speaking with God
Hey God, I know that I have been a little distant and I have stood you up many times. Its just that I have a lot to do. You know life gets in the way. I have classes, which by the way, take up a lot of my time especially with all those papers I have had to write, but am learning more about you. Oh and thanks for the grades I could ask for anything better. But you know I also pick up my daughter from school and spend time with her, Saturdays are of course family days and let’s not forget all the other work I do for you, here for church. So some times I run out of time.
What kind of relationship do we have? Well…I think we have a good one, I do all the things that you want me to do, I work in church I run the sound, the youth ministry, I am in the planning committee, I…when do we spend time together? Well, we spending time now, but we need to hurry cause I need to you know preach. So thank you God for all that you done, all that you are doing and all that you will do Amen.
If our time with God is always rushed and our minds are on a thousand other places and on a million other things we need to do then how effective is our conversation? How much are we paying attention and how much do we value that relationship? How would you feel if you were on the other side of that conversation? These are just some questions that can help to gauge the type of relationship we have with God.
If prayer is communicating with God and communicating involves sharing but also listening, then when do we listen if we are always in a rush? I pray that we slow down a bit, lay off the Espresso style of prayer and take time to have a conversation with God. A time when we can talk and listen to His answers.
ap|chronicles 