Interesting thought about prayer

This article by Michael Reynolds entitled I don’t pray caught my attention.

I don’t pray because I don’t have enough faith, I allow myself to be distracted by things that ultimately don’t matter and because I’ve put myself at the center of the world.

Sure. I do pray probably more often than the average person. And yes, I do plenty of the “bless this food we are about to eat,” “please make this a good day,” “please solve my cash flow problems,” “please help my neighbor get a job,” “please cure my friend’s cancer,” “please help my friend’s marriage,” and “please keep my kids safe” variety of petitions.

Those flow freely. This is good. But I know that God wants so much more from me…a real intimacy and an authentic relationship with Him. He wants me passionately seeking out time with Him.

This seems to be the main problem with this generation we live in. We have books lining shelves that instruct us how to prayer. We have prayer journals that we don't keep up. We read lists of prayer request every day. But are we really "praying" for these needs. We go to "prayer meetings" and we pray for everything that maybe we shouldn't be praying for.

Knowing God is the most important element in learning to fellowship with Him through prayer. But do we really "know" Him, or do we "know of" Him. There is a vast difference.

1 John 1:3-4 (KJV) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 

Exodus 33:13 (KJV) Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.  

Moses was asking for the same thing that Paul did in Philippians 3:10, "That I may know him...." It is the same thing that Philip meant when in John 14:8 he said, "...shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." 

I believe every child of God has a desire to know God. 

Moses knew that he needed the presence of God with him. He knew that he could not make it on his own.

And neither can we make it on our own. That is where the moments that we spend in prayer are more important than anything else; not really asking for anything, but getting to know God. As we "know" God, than we understand what we need to ask "in His Name."