As you pour your morning coffee – ponder this question… “Why do you pray?”

If you don’t know why you pray, the act becomes nothing more than a ritual of religion.

On the contrary, when you know why you pray, when you recognize that you are petitioning the heart of God, and that He hears? When you believe that angels will be dispatched with answers? THAT is relationship. That’s what Jesus longs for…

I heard Jentezen Franklin say in a sermon on fasting and praying … God loves us all the same. It’s unconditional. There’s nothing we can do to make him love us any more, or any less.  But his favor? Now that’s another story…

In the bible there is example after example where individuals found favor with God. Daniel found favor when he fasted and prayed. And we read in the scripture…
“But Noah found favor with God”
“For those who find me find life, and favor of the Lord”
“And the boy Samuel began to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people”

How do you find Jesus?  You seek him.  You talk to him.  And then? You will find favor of the Lord.  It’s no different than the way we build any relationship here on earth.

I still recall the day this picture was taken.  There was nothing my little grandson could have done that day to make me love him any more (or less).  But as I held him, he squirmed and his little hands fell around my neck, as if to hug me.  I melted! And found myself saying… “When you do that purposefully one day and say I love you? I will buy you a car, a pony, you can have anything you want!!”   Don’t you have to imagine God’s the same way? When we praise him. When we thank him and tell him we love him. He has to feel just like I did that day Cade hugged my neck. Don’t take my word for it. Look at what the bible says…

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” – Matthew 7:11

How do you find Jesus? You seek him. You talk to him. And then? You will find favor of the Lord.   Why do you pray??