Lately behind the chair I have taken to asking my  clients about their prayer life, and/or what they’ve been studying in the word. In almost every case, across the board, no matter their profession, at least one or the other seems to be lacking, and I don’t mean waning, I mean virtually non-existent. Most don’t have much of a prayer life, it tends to be on-the-go, or sprinkled throughout the business of our lives. When it comes to scripture it seems a little more all over the place, but for the most part it’s still squeezed in more ritual than anything else. 

So my question then is, if you are not praying, and your not seeking the Lord in scripture, how are you seeking the Lord? 

We are the generation that proclaims it is not a religion, it is a relationship. So what are the practical elements of your relationship with the Lord? 

I don’t mean this from a soapbox. This is something that hit me, and convicted me hard. It put a glaring light on the actual state of my personal faith, and walk with the Lord. I had to come to grips with the truth that I loved the things of the Lord, I loved his ways, his personality, I loved that I could see his hand throughout history. However, I knew about him like I knew well my profession. Or the history of my favorite sports team. I could even see how he had been working in my life, but I did not know him personally, daily. I did not possess the trust in him to wait on him. I knew that the Lord was present in the affairs of men, but I wasn’t sure he  was paying super close attention to the affairs of me. I trusted in him for my ultimate salvation, and to guide me morally from ruin, but I didn’t know him well enough to ask and wait for a response to my lifes issues. We didnt have the sort of relationship that made me rely on him to fix things that I thought I was smart enough to figure out, and unfortunately that kept me missing the deepest parts of my relationship with the Lord, and had me running into wall after wall, chasing the wrong things. All in his name, for sure. For me I had scripture, which gave me the head knowledge and love for the Lord, but I needed prayer to engage the engine. 

I say this because I see so many people with one or the other, or both only in very low levels in their lives. So many Christians will read book after book, devotional after devotional, watch video after video about Christian things, even about prayer and scripture. I see so many people caught up in false teachings and deceptions that they would walk right out of if only they would seek the Lord themselves. So many plateaued, lukewarm churches filled with burnt out pastors and half dead congregations could be reborn if we would humble ourselves repent of trying to run our own show, and seek the Lord again, in practice. Which brings me back to the beginning. How do we as modern Christians practically seek the Lord, no matter our situation, station, or circumstance? Prayer, and scripture. Then get around other Christians and do it together. Thats discipleship, but that’s another rant.