Let It Rise: Sacred Ingredients for a Life of PrayerSample

I’ve Got a Friend In You

“You’re my best friend,” I repeated to my Bible, as if it could hear me speak these words. “There is no one who knows me better than you. Not even my husband of 44 years.” These pages, wrinkled, torn, tear-stained, underlined, and highlighted, with so many notes in the columns, have walked with me through life in Christ. I have searched for a word, a principle, a character quality, an answer, a prayer, a wilderness, a mountain to go to, a tree to rest under ... and I have found them there, inside my best friend.

There are so many translations of Bibles. However, there is a very special, very personal, and very prophetic version not available in any store. That’s the Bible where you put your name in place of Gideon, Mary, Paul, Naomi, and so on. It’s the one where you find yourself wandering through the wilderness. It’s the one where you identify with a desperate Hannah, a denying Peter, or a despondent David. By the way, when you read the Scriptures, you need to know that the principles apply to both men and women. I know lots of Martha-like men and hearts-after-God women!

As you read the Word, there will be Scriptures that convict you, call you to act, or charge you to go. This is the hard part. This is the easy part. This is the rubber-meets-the-road part. This is the adventure part. This is the heaven-to-earth part. This is the challenging part. This is the living outside your comfort zone part. This is the Spirit is alive and active in me part.

A spirit of religion will choke the truth of God. It will distort what God wants to say to you. We need to filter the Word of God through what it says about how He sees us and not how we see ourselves (or even how others see us). When we do that, we give the Spirit the liberty, the freedom, and the breath of God to speak to us. He will teach us, nurture us, and grow us into houses of prayer that echo His heart, will, plans, and purposes. We will carry the Word we have meditated on, and we will be transformed by it.

Your living prayer will become the natural overflow of learning God’s character, will, heart, and desires. You will discover the way He cares for and keeps you, and you will learn to trust in what His plans and purposes are for your life. Right now, the Holy Spirit is nudging me to tell you, “Timing is key.” God will have you marinate, measure, and mark His Word before you act on it. I’ve missed God on occasions and spoken or acted too soon. I didn’t give God time to go before me to prepare the person, condition, or situation. God is a God of perfect timing, and His Word brings perfect guidance to our lives.