This is a prayer.
God,
It’s interesting to me how You desire to partner with us in Your work.
Like prayer, for example. You want us to seek You, and to ask You for things out of our seeking, so that You can accomplish things that You can certainly do with or without us. So then prayer is not really about the object of prayer, but about the asker. You could easily do all things without us…but apparently that’s not the kind of God You Are. It’s like the difference between seeing ‘partnership’ as a value or a primary organizing principle. Perhaps ‘partnership’ is part of Your DNA, like the Bible describes ‘love.’ You don’t ‘need’ us, in terms of how we understand the word ‘need,’ yet You have positioned Yourself…indeed limited Yourself…in a way that necessitates us to step up as Your partners. You have chosen to need broken, corrupt, selfish ambassadors to accomplish Your work in this foreign land. Why? Perhaps I will never fully understand this, but my mind rests in places of Your Word like Hebrews 12, the ‘faith chapter’ that lists dozens of the faithful servants of the Old Testament who lives by faith. They all had their eyes focused, their minds set, on a reality that was beyond and above all we experience in the days of this temporal life. Their strong connection with You, the Living God, the Creator & Sustainer, the eternal Cause & Meaning, is what motivated and inspired and fueled their sojourn…and ushered them into Your company when they were done here. We are called to consider their way of life, their values and goals, and to imitate them as they followed You into Faith, Hope, and Love. This is the true ‘trickle down’ effect of God.
