Prayer: The Test of Relationship

Prayer: The Test of Relationship

By Mike McLoughlin,
Youth With A Mission, Marketplace Mission
Visit the Scruples Small Business Forum at www.scruples.net for more information.

The simplest test of whether or not you have a personal relationship with Christ is prayer. Do you pray? How often do you pray? When do you pray? Is it only at church and only by reading the prayer from a book? Or are you able to talk to Jesus as if He were a close friend or relative? There is no relationship between people who do not talk to each other.

Are sure of your relationship with Christ? Are you sure that he hears you when you pray? Have you heard him reply to your prayers? If not, it may be that you do not have a personal relationship with him. For you to have that relationship you must believe in him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12)

You can believe in Jesus by taking the following steps:

1. Confess that you are a sinner, that your sin has kept you away from God, and that you want God to forgive your sin. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23).

2. Believe that God sent His Son Jesus to save you from the penalty that is due to you for your sin: death. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) Believing in Jesus is more than just having an opinion about him. It means that you TURN from your previous ways of living. You have been moving in one direction, you see Jesus going in the other direction and so you TURN to follow him. Also, it means that you TRUST him with your life. TRUSTING Jesus is like getting into a boat. You trust that the boat will carry your weight and continue to float when you are in it. You must TRUST Jesus will carry the penalty of your sins and that you will be saved from them by him. Finally, you must be ready to FOLLOW him wherever he will lead you. You must be ready to let go of your ways and your ideas about life and allow him to teach you his ways and give you his mind on life.

3. Receive your salvation by faith and confess it with your mouth. (i.e. tell someone!) For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10:10). No one receives a gift unless they reach out and take it from the hand of the giver. You receive your salvation by confessing it with you mouth.

Once you have taken these three steps you can pray confident that God hears you and will respond to you. Christians in business must be people of prayer. Only through divine assistance will you be able to succeed materially or spiritually.

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