.....pray

And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend Exodus 33:11

This verse is set in a tent pitched outside the camp. Moses did not go there to recite a formula. He went to talk, and the text says God answered the way a friend answers. Nothing in that scene is scripted or performed. It is two parties in real conversation. That changes how we picture prayer. Many of us treat it as a duty to complete, a list to deliver, or a religious exercise to get right. Scripture keeps presenting it as relationship, with a God who wants to be spoken to and who speaks back.

James gives us the invitation and the promise together: Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." James 4:8 Notice who moves first in this verse. We are told to draw near, and the promise is that God closes the rest of the distance. Prayer is the act of turning toward Him, and He is never far from meeting us there.

Ellen White describes what prayer actually does when we come this way: Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him Steps to Christ, p. 93 God already knows everything we carry. Prayer does not inform Him. It opens us, so that we become people who are able to receive Him.

A Question to Sit With: When you pray, do you speak the way Moses did, as to a friend, or the way someone recites a required text? What would change if you simply told Him what is actually on your heart today?

Heavenly Father, thank You that prayer is friendship and not performance. I open my heart to You today just as it is, with nothing polished and nothing hidden. Draw me near, and help me receive all You want to give. In Jesus' name,