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Pray Talk to the King of the Universe

The real purpose of prayer

Revelation 3:20

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in and eat with them, and they with me."

-> START Some people think prayer is like ordering a pizza. You dial up God and rattle off what you want. If all goes well, a few minutes later you're devouring a snack made exactly the way you like it. But God has a totally different angle on prayer. He's no underpaid delivery guy who drops off the goods, drives away, then kills time at the shop waiting for your next order. When God shows up at your door with a jumbo-sized deep dish supreme, he wants to come in and eat.

When do you pray? What do you say when you talk to God?

-> READ Revelation 3:20

Jesus said: 20 "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me."

-> THINK This verse shows up in the last book of the Bible, in a section of short letters where Jesus challenges the early Christians to grab hold of true faith. The passage is about more than prayer. It's an amazing picture of how Jesus aims to get along with us.

That's Jesus rapping his knuckles on "the door." At what door is he knocking?

What two things do you need to do to accept this dinner invite from Jesus? Then what will he do?

Why would Jesus pick eating together as a picture of his relationship with us?

Sharing a lunch table can show people who your friends are, although sometimes you end up sitting with someone you might rather ditch. Back in Bible times there were strict rules detailing whom you could eat with-or not. Sharing food was a deep public sign of friendship and approval.

-> LIVE How is prayer nothing like ordering a pizza? And how is God unlike a pizza delivery person?

Brainstorm a list of ways that prayer is like sitting down to dine with Jesus.

This book will walk you through a wild variety of Bible prayers, but they all come down to this: Prayer is having a conversation with the One who knows you best and loves you most. It's your chance to talk with him at any moment about every part of life.

If Jesus knocked on your head and your heart and said, "I want to get to know you, and I want you to know me," how would you respond?

-> WRAP It's a promise: If you open the door to God, he guarantees that he'll walk right in. And every time you open your mouth to pray, you're grabbing an opportunity to know God better. Whenever you pray, you get far more than whatever slab of crust, meat, and oozing cheese you're hoping for. You get God himself.

>> MORE THOUGHTS TO MULL

* When have you talked to God as if he shuttles pizzas for a living? When in your life has prayer been bigger than that?

* Picture yourself sitting down to eat with Jesus. Where are you eating? What's on the menu? Why do you picture that?

* The artist Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was so inspired by Revelation 3:20 that he painted "The Light of the World," a classic picture showing Jesus knocking at a door overgrown with weeds. Google the image and take a good look at it. Someone once told Hunt he'd goofed because he'd forgotten to paint a handle on the outside of the door. Holman answered that it was no mistake. "There's only one handle," he said, "and it's on the inside." Question: What does it mean that the door of your life can only be opened from the inside?

* Pray it: God, I don't just want the good things you can give me. I want you.

>> MORE SCRIPTURES TO DIG

* Flip to Matthew 9:9-13, Luke 7:36-50, and Luke 19:1-9 to glimpse real-life pictures of Jesus eating with people. Notice how Jesus doesn't try to impress a popular host-such as the Pharisee in Luke 7-but he goes out of his way to eat with ordinary people. If Jesus had followed the rules laid down by the religious leaders of his day, he wouldn't have gone near sinners like tax collectors and prostitutes. For that matter, he wouldn't have sat down to eat with any of us.

* Check the background of Revelation 3:20 by reading the verses right around it, Revelation 3:14-22. The Christians in Laodicea were like the lukewarm waters of their town-neither hot like the healing springs just to the north, nor cold like the refreshing waters found to the southeast. Jesus says he will spew them from his mouth if they continue to settle for mediocrity in their relationship with him.

* God's people used food to celebrate their connection with him long before church potlucks were invented. In fact, the Bible is jammed with references to food, fun, and deep fellowship. You'll find several descriptions of Old Testament festivals in Leviticus 23. And in Psalm 23:5 God spreads a feast for the great King David while David's enemies look on. Jesus tells his followers to remember him with a sacred meal, the Lord's Supper, in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. And in Revelation 19:7-10 the celebration in heaven kicks off with the wedding supper of the Lamb.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Pray by Kevin Johnson Copyright © 2007 by Kevin Johnson. Excerpted by permission.
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