Most of us who are strong believers call on God to help us through our daily lives. In fact, we are always including references to God in our normal everyday existence. Communing with God isn’t optional – it’s automatic. Certainly, many of our interactions with the Father and His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, are acts of worship – such as community church, personal devotion time, prayer on behalf of someone else or acts of adoration. But there are times that we have problems and we know from the Bible that God wants us to call His name when we are struggling or suffering. But did you know that 80% of believers – a group called casual Christians, don’t include God on a daily basis in their lives?
Those folks don’t usually go to church and only contact the Father when they want something – not to thank Him for the blessings that they have experienced each day of their lives. If you ask a devout believer when the last time was that God was active in their lives, you’ll probably hear some story about what happened earlier today, or yesterday. But casual Christians may have to go back months, years or even to their conversion experience to relate stories of how God was interacting with them.
That’s partly because they don’t live their lives expecting miracles. They consider themselves the center of the universe and that just isn’t the case. Just because you don’t depend on God doesn’t mean that you are the center of everything. In case you don’t realize it – God is the center of everything; the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. In the Greek – the reference is to the first, the last and everything in between. God is everything. The key to a successful life is stay centered on God.
Now I don’t mean that you should shoot sideway glances toward God from time to time. I mean you should stay focused on God – first, last and always. And I’m talking about focusing with both eyes – don’t worry about what’s going on around you – God will take care of that for you. From time to time, you won’t even know what to pray for – and that’s when the Holy Spirit comes into play. The Spirit will pray on your behalf and before the prayer even leaves your lips, God is already hearing and knowing what your petition is. The key is to keep focused on God.
The verse for this evening is from the prophet Isaiah. He recounts that God tells us, in Is. 65:24, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” My encouragement this evening is that God wants to be a part of your life – and He tells us that He will hear us even before we know what to ask for. And when the words finally form on your lips, God will already be answering. My prayer is that you will depend on the Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to walk side by side with you all the days of your life.