Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
What have you devoted your life to? Have you devoted your life to work, family, or your spouse? Paul here says that one of the things we should devote our lives to, and that means to give our whole hearts to, is prayer.
What Is Prayer?
Let's remember what prayer is. Prayer is, simply put, Christ-enabled conversation with God. God speaks to us through His Word, and then we speak to God in prayer. That has been made possible through Jesus. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 18 says, "For through Jesus we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." Jesus gives us access to God the Father.
Imagine before you became a Christian, there was a sign before God that said, "No access" or "No entry," and now as a believer through Christ, that sign says "Welcome." We're enabled. We're able to approach God and to approach Him in prayer. Prayer is Christ-enabled conversation with God. John Bunyan said, "Prayer is the opener of the heart of God, and a means by which the soul, though empty, is filled."
Prayer with an Alert Mind and Thankful Heart
That's what it means to pray. It's to talk to God. Paul then gives a descriptor of the kind of prayer that we should devote ourselves to. He says "prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart," so our minds must be alert. That means that when we talk to God, we want our minds to be engaged. We're thinking about what we're doing and what we're saying.
Then, and I want to emphasize this, Paul says, "Devote yourselves to prayer with a thankful heart." That means that our hearts should be in a posture of gratitude and thankfulness when we come to God.
Avoiding the Vending Machine Approach
The reality is, it is easy for us to have our prayers consumed with what we want God to do. "God, please do this and please do that." We cry out to God to answer our prayers, and there's nothing wrong with that. God is our Heavenly Father and He loves us, and the Bible says we should present all of our requests to Him. He wants to meet the desires of our heart. We should go to God with everything.
It's easy for us to turn God into a divine vending machine, where the only time we talk to Him, the only time we cry out to Him, is when we want Him to do something. Paul has a great reminder here. He says, "Devote yourself to this kind of prayer. Prayer with a thankful heart."
Would you consider taking all those prayers you have, and at least couching those prayers in gratitude and thankfulness to God? Why not begin every prayer with something that you are thankful and grateful to God for?