Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Telephone (07/17/08)
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TITLE: Face-to-Face and Heart-to-Heart | Previous Challenge Entry
By Allan Morelos
07/22/08 -
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No, not the telephone way! He takes all kinds of calls, yes! But more than that, He yearns to converse and interact with us. He longs to confide to us His thoughts and feelings, to embrace us and say ‘sweet-nothings’ to us as the lover and the beloved in the Song of Songs passionately do.
Telephones have their advantages. In case of emergency, you call 911. To make an appointment and close a business deal, you dial a number. To talk to a loved one in a foreign land, you make an international call. Telephones save lives, enhance incomes and improve the quality of relationships.
But there’s no substitute to face-to-face communication. In telephone interviews, for instance, the interviewer can’t see the widening of the interviewee’s eyes, the twitching of her lips, her drooping shoulders or jittery movements of hands and arms. In face-to-face interviews, on the other hand, every linguistic and extra-linguistic signal is as plain as day.
But when people pray to God, they call Him the way they use 911. Generally, God has no role to play in their lives. But when a crisis arises, that’s the only time they call on Him. That’s not that bad though. He still listens to each cry of pain or anguish or despair. He answers 911 calls from believers and unbelievers.
The Apostle Peter’s shortest prayer, “Lord, save me!” is a 911 call to God with quick results. Remember the stormy scene in the Sea of Galilee when Jesus walked on the water? Peter stepped on the water, got scared of the waves and began to sink. Peter lost his wits and helplessly yelled, “Lord, save me!” God answers emergency calls.
When people pray, God prefers face-to-face and heart-to-heart communication. Of course, He can answer business calls. He’s used to that. People come to Him to ask and ask. They ask for this and that. There’s nothing wrong with that as well. He still listens to each request, each longing, each hope and each wish of the human heart. He does answer business calls from everyone who pleads.
“Seek ye My face,” God says. The Lord yearns to speak with us face to face as a man speaks with his closest friend. He desires to communicate with us as a dearly loved one to another.
Can you imagine a newly-wed couple in their honeymoon suite talking to each other over the phone? The Lord Jesus is the great lover of our soul. He’s passionate about us. He loves us forever. He longs to converse with us – face to face and heart to heart. Yet, we – His Bride, the object of His passion – talk with Him the way we use the phone.
Listen to His passionate words of love: “All beautiful you are, My darling…. Come with Me…. You have stolen My heart with one glance of your eyes…. How delightful is your love…My bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine.”
Truly, that’s not the 911 or business phone way. The All-loving One longs to talk with you. He delights in your presence. He enjoys your company. He cherishes your love. He treasures your worship. He values your contribution. He likes to plan with you and dream big for you. He wants your will blended with His. His heart breaks with longing for you. Oh how precious you are to Him!
When you pray to God, He prefers it this way - in love and sweet fellowship with a beloved. “Prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other,” Rosalind Rinker, a prayer warrior, once wrote. To pray is to relax in the arms of God, to rest in His promises and to enjoy His presence. It is to converse, confide and communicate the deepest intentions of the Father, the grandest purposes of the Son and the wildest of fire of the Holy Spirit.
“Come away, My beloved,” the Triune-Lover says. “Be still. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you.”
When you pray, then, you can go beyond the 911 and the business phone way. Immerse in His thoughts. Involve in His passions. Engage in His will. Rejoice in His love. Interact, involve and converse with the One you truly love and adore.
Can you sense Him now?
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(See Matthew 14:22-33, Psalm 27:8, Exodus 33:11, Song of Songs 4:7-10 and Jeremiah 31:3.)
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