Christ-Centered Prayer
The first and most important principle of prayer is this: prayer changes the person praying. Prayer changes us. Is change what we really want? We can say very easily that we are willing to change. But change equals cost.
Whenever God comes near to us, change is imminent, and therefore cost is imminent. There is always a cost to be paid for change. Is change what we really want?
“No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me” (John 6:44).
Relationship lies at the heart of prayer. Prayer is not learned from a distance. Drawing people to himself is the primary activity of a God of love.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:7–8).
Prayer is discovering that God’s heart is for you. Prayer is not an attempt to establish a relationship with God; it is the expression of a real and growing relationship. We can only truly pray with the God we truly know. How we know God determines how we pray. As we grow in Christ and Christ grows in us, so should we grow in our maturity in prayer. If we are not growing in our maturity in prayer, then we are unwilling for our own selves to change. Maturity in character brings maturity in prayer. Maturity in prayer is not the same as quantity of prayer. A constant growth to maturity is critically important for us as the people of God. We need to understand the paths of growth if we are to mature in prayer.
This chapter comes from Christ-Centered Life: Deep Calls to Deep (WestBow Press, 2013). Used by permission of the author.
As of the time of publication, The Authors Show interview that Broderick recorded in March 2015 is still available to listen to online at: http://www.wnbnetworkwest.com/WnbAuthorsShow.html. It is repeated on the programs at least once every month and is always available in the archived interviews lower down the page.
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