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 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 