I had a dream the other night, it was short, and nothing was said in the dream. When I woke up, I knew I needed to write about it, but I did not know what. In the dream I sat at a table which seated 4 people, one on each side of the table. I could not completely make out who was sitting at my right or at my left, but I had them in my peripheral vision.
What I could see very clearly, was who was sitting across from me, it was a man, and in the silence, I knew that it was Jesus. Although I could not see them clearly, I knew that at my right sat Prayer and at mt left was Life. That was it, that was the whole dream and I woke up thinking, what on earth does this mean, what am I supposed to write about this, so I left it at that for a while.
The day came where I needed to write about it, still not knowing what I need to say, so I thought, ok I will write about something else in the meanwhile, but nothing, I had nothing. I do not search for something to write, I do not plan to write something, I simply just have the message when the time comes.
I sat there asking God to give me something else, but still nothing, I even thought of letting the team know that I had nothing for them this time, but then I felt God saying: “draw it”. I took a pen and a little scrap note and drew the scene from above, a little square which was the table, 4 dots, one on each side and then I named them. At the bottom was me, across from me was Jesus, at my right: Prayer and at my left: Life and then it hit me like a wave.
This is a simple message, but it is important enough that God did not want me to skip it or write about anything else. Somewhere, somebody needs to remember this today. Draw this picture for yourself if you want to and pay attention to whom is seated where. This table is the table of our lives. Life on the left serves you with a dish, it might be something you like, or it may be something you did not order, something you do not want at all.
The dish is passed on to you whether you like it or not, because that is life, right? Now, if you are in relationship with God and you receive something you do not want to keep, like illness, heartbreak, worries or pain, then you are going to want to give it to God, you are going to need Him to help you, save you or heal you, but there is only one way to get your plate to Him: you need to send that dish to Prayer.
There is no way to get that plate to Jesus without first sending it past Prayer. There is no way to rearrange the seating at this table and it only works one way. No one seated at this table can be skipped and although we cannot choose what is served to us, we can choose what we are going to do with it.
We cannot sit with it in front of us and shout to God across from the table to help us with it, the only way to change what is in our plate, is to give it to God and the only way to do that, is by giving it to Him through prayer.
How many times have we sat at this table crying in front of God about what is in our plate, how many times have we complained and felt hopeless and how much time have we spent feeling sorry for ourselves, where we should have been giving it to God through prayer?
What is the message here today? Pray, pray and pray! Pray about it and when it keeps coming around, when life keeps dishing it for you, pray again! Keep passing it on, it may taste worse the next time around, it may even get bigger, but pass it on, keep praying, our God is gracious, our God is great and He wants only the best for you. Look at what you can learn from it and keep praying, God will deal with it one way or another, but it cannot change if you do not pray about it.
Lastly, don’t look at life and worry about what it is going to dish next, because there is nothing you can do about it anyway, just keep looking at Jesus. Do not look at Prayer, nothing is coming straight back to you from that direction, you are not good at praying, you are not bad at it either and you are not dependent on anybody else’s prayer, although it helps, it is in no way ever more important than your own prayers.
If you talk on a phone, it is not the phone who answers, it is the person on the other side and it doesn’t matter how incredible that phone is, it won’t affect what the person is going to say. Just as you don’t speak to a phone, you speak through it, so too, is prayer only a phone. You don’t need fancy prayers with big words or important people to pray for you, Jesus really is more into that one on one conversations. Just be yourself, it is the best way to get to know Him anyway.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6
God bless you,
Miryna van As