Pastor’s Blog: Transformational Prayer

transfigurationLast week my meditation was on the Transfiguration of Jesus from the account in Luke 9:28-36.  Three of the gospels have accounts of the scene but it is only Luke who informs us that Jesus’ purpose was to engage in prayer (9:28), and again only in Luke (9:29) are we told that it was while Jesus was praying to his Father that he experienced the Transfiguration, that ‘the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white’ (9:29).  The importance of prayer in our savior’s life readily emerges from Luke’s account. He went to the mountain to pray.  Jesus was praying for a long time — so long that Peter, James and John all fell asleep and were awoken by the dazzling light.  While he was in prayer, he was transformed.  It’s this last point to which I want to draw your attention.

Prayer, in its broadest definition, is a conversation with God.  Jesus was talking to God.  God has given us the gift of prayer so that we may know and have the way to call upon Him for help to do the things He has commanded us to do, and so that, in turn, He Himself may bless us and others in our doing of them.  Through prayer, God calls us into a relationship with Him.  From that relationship we can gain unbelievable strength to deal with the struggles in our everyday lives.  Problems in our relationships.  Problems at work.  Problems with sin.  Whatever it is — big or small — prayer is a way to gain strength.  Through a regular prayer life we too can be “transformed” — changed from the inside out.  Romans 12:2.  God will help to bring out the best in you — that’s a promise you can count on.

 

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