A Prayer for “Baby Christians”

[Keri's Post]
I’m not always going to write on current evens when Sunday rolls around. Simply because there are so many biblical truths that I’m rediscovering. I consider them to be current events in my life and in the lives of all “baby Christians”. It’s Chris’ hope that people we don’t even know will read this blog and realize that God is not an abstract idea with no basis in our lives today. It is my hope to expand that a bit and impart some of my experiences (some good, some bad) in being a new Christian. With the hope that someone who is new to their faith will learn from all this and hopefully grow and mature a little easier than it has been for me...

Not many people know that I’ve only truly been Christian for a little over a year now. So sometimes I find it hard to express my feelings to non believers since I’m relatively new to faith in Jesus Christ. My spiritual journey took somewhat of a fast track though since there are already so many things I do know about God. I just didn’t know God personally until Chris introduced me. Thanks honey!

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 1 Corinthians 3:1-3

It truly has been like having a second adolescence with all of the awkward points along the way.

Today I’m going to talk about prayer. Before I was Christian, I would basically pray about the same things every night. “Help me with my test; give me the strength to get through tomorrow, thanks for the great weather, blah blah blah.” Well, that got boring even for me so I eventually stopped praying altogether. Now that I’m an actual Christian striving for a relationship with God I’ve noticed a difference in my prayers, but for a while there I was slipping back into the same old habit of asking for the same stuff over and over.

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:5-15

Before I was Christian, I didn’t think of God in that way. I never heard him speaking to my heart or to my mind. I was insanely jealous of all those who he did seem to speak to, and I used to think that I wasn’t living up to the divine nature he had given me, so that’s why he never talked to me. Now I’ve realized that he’s always been there talking to me and reassuring me when things go wrong, I just didn’t listen for him. My idea of him was wrong; I had not accepted him into my life. I had not given over my life to him. Now that I have, I’ve grown more and learned more than I ever did before. My life has finally come together since I’ve given away to him.

This morning I asked God how he wanted me to pray, and he told me that he just wants to have a conversation with me. He already knows what I want and what I need. He knows that I’m still struggling for clarification on many Christian issues. He already knows all these things, he wants me to ask for them anyway, but what he wants most of all is to simply hear from me and talk to me about my life. That’s how we should pray, we should just talk to God like we were talking to an old friend on the telephone. Seriously, he’s only a prayer away and he yearns to hear from you.