July 7, 2021 – Click here to listen
My youngest son, his wife and my grandsons have been here for the past few days. Every meal a different person has said grace. All of us have participated without hesitation. This is done at restaurants or at home. It has been my experience that saying prayers in front of others is not the norm for most families, but it is in our family.
I see no reason to be embarrassed and I could care less who sees me praying and all of us have the same mindset. The important thing is that God hears us, and I think He is happy that we honor Him in such a manner. I think of prayer as an expression of friendship with God. I’m delighted that my son’s family are friends with God.
Friendship is generally a two-way street. I have a friend who has practically everything known to man thus it is near impossible to buy him a Christmas or birthday gift. Consider God who genuinely does own everything in all of creation. So, what can we possibly give Him?
We give Him what He desires the most, our love, honor, respect, thanks, and obedience. We don’t say grace using some vain repetition so someone can see us praying as hypocrites, we do it out of love.
Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends . . . ” That is what He did for us. What can we do? There is an old hymn entitled, What a friend we have in Jesus. The lyrics in part, What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer . . .
I’ve been singing it all morning.
John 15:14
You are my friends if you do what I command you.