Monday: Talking to God

And when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. What a beautiful weekend we had at the Southern Location of the North Pole. 70 plus and just beautiful, a sign of the coming of spring. .. a lot of our plants have shown their heads to catch that sunshine our dear Lord sends.

Monday and the day we pray for our leaders in Washington and in our State Houses and also our Military and all those who serve this great nation, and also our police and firefighters.

Talking to God. A man walks slowly to his telephone to place a call to God. He really is not all excited about it, for he just does not like to hear all the numbers, and to be put on hold time and time again. But that call goes like this ... 1-800 CALLGOD ... Ring, ring, ring, ring ... Hello, this is Heaven and we welcome your call, please for English push 1, for Greek push 2, for Hebrew push 3, for Spanish push 4, for more choices push 5 ... So the man pushes 1. Hi again, please select from the following ... To speak to Saint Peter at the front gate push 1, to speak to old Gabriel push 2, to speak to other angels push 3, to speak to Mother Mary push 4, to talk about your blessings push 5, to speak to someone in the Mansion push 6 and to talk to God the Father push 7. So the man pushes 7 without hearing the rest of the message. The recording comes on again, sorry, to talk to God the Father you need to go through God the Son, push 8 for Jesus ... so the man pushes 8.

Hi there, this is the office of Jesus, to speak to his staff person, please press 1, to speak to Jesus, please press 2. So the man presses 2. Hi, you have reached the voicemail of Jesus, right now I am too busy to answer the phone, please press 1 to return to the main menu or press 2 for my staff person, or you may hang up and try again later ... Man hangs up......

Wow, sure am glad that calling on Jesus is not like trying to get in touch with someone in your senators office. Dear brothers and sisters, the Bible talks a lot about talking to God, or praying. This week I want to address that, including taking a look at the Lord's prayer. For today I just want you to know when you really need to talk to God, just go someplace quiet and talk to Him. HIS LINE IS ALWAYS OPEN, AND HE WILL ALWAYS HEAR AND ALSO ANSWER YOUR PRAYER. Now let me give you this warning -- you must take time to listen to God for His answer, and you must also know that His answer comes in His time and not ours, and also that no is also an answer.

Talking to God: "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Matthew 6: 6 (NIV)

These are the words of Jesus, my dear brothers and sisters. Also when you talk to God, you do not need to babble going on and on, remember this, God already knows what you are going to say, so get to the point. Sometimes we pastors tend to pray a message. Years ago when I was Lay Leader at Hope United Methodist Church in Mechanicsburg, Pastor Dr. Richard Denison talked to me about not taking 10 minutes for a prayer. There are times, however, when pastors seem to be explaining to God all things. For example, Lord, here we are in sitting in church taking prayer requests from the flock, and several have needs. Pastors, as much as any, need to learn not to babble, and yes, God is once again pointing one of my messages right back at me ... gosh, He does that so often.

I also must confess that I do not talk to God as often as I should. While Dolores goes into her room each evening and talks with God, I so often do not, or not nearly enough. But again when we talk to God, get to the poin. I remember a few years back, our son Keith asked me to give the prayer before a big football dinner for the peewee football team. As I walked to the mike, Keith whispered to me, "Dad, remember, don't pray so long that the food gets cold." Point well taken. However, once in a while, when getting in front of a group of people that might not know God, we like to put a little more meat into that prayer.

Ok, enough for today, tomorrow more on "talking to God". Let's talk a bit now ... and let me see if I can keep it more to the point.

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for all the blessings You have given us, thanks for taking care of our families and friends, and thanks for this line. I pray today for our leaders in Washington and in our State houses, and I pray for our troops and their families and all police and firefighters, asking you to watch over them and their missions, and please, Lord, keep their families safe while keeping them safe also. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Go forth, talking to God, and sharing your blessings. love ya, dan.