Is Prayer Your Steering Wheel Or Your Spare Tire?

            Relationships…there are many different types. There is the relationship between an employer & their employee, mother & daughter, father & son, boyfriend & girlfriend, husband & wife, neighbors, etc. While all these relationships are important, the most important relationship that any of us have is our relationship with God. Our relationship with God should be exalted above any other relationship that we have, but sometimes that is not always the case. I know I am guilty of doing this. If you were to ask someone right now what they have observed is the most important relationship in your life, what do you think they would say? Would they say your relationship with God? Something to think about and check. #idolcheck

            Take a look at all the relationships in your life. One thing that all your thriving relationships have in common is good communication. For any relationship to continue, the two parties involved must talk. They have to communicate with one another. They have to express what they are feeling and they have to be able to listen to each other. Communication involves both parties talking and not at the same time because you are not listening when you are talking. We communicate with God when we pray. I know many times we talk about how prayer is a dialogue and not a monologue, but today I want to talk about this quote from Corrie Ten Boom:

 

            I saw this on Instagram about a month ago and ya’ll should have seen my face…my eyes got so big! This definitely struck a chord with me. #convictedmuch Allow me to tell you what God showed me through this quote, “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” First I want to look at the difference between a steering wheel and a spare tire. Most of you have a car and a job. Thus, you use your steering wheel everyday most likely to take yourself to work, the grocery store, shopping, church, etc. But if you are like me, you don’t use your spare tire nearly as much, often times it is forgotten. I’ve had my car (Her name is April lol), for almost a year and I have yet to be forced to use my spare time. When prayer is your steering wheel it should be like unto a steering wheel, you use/do it every day. You and God communicate every day. You consult and acknowledge Him every day. You live by Proverbs 3:4-5, which says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” You and God know each other, you are familiar with one another, you’ve had so many conversations. You are aware that your relationship’s growth is dependent on the two of you communicating with one another, just like any other relationship. Those that you are closest too are those that you talk to the most, and nothing stops the communication, not even distance. My best friend, Angel and I talk every single day in some form, usually a couple forms. We text, call, tweet, groupme, facebook chat, Instagram, etc…you get the picture. The same is true with your relationship with God. I Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Never stop praying.” The communication between you and God should never stop. You talk to Him when things are good, bad, happy, sad, ugly, beautiful, etc.

            Let’s look at the other side of this…when God is your spare wheel. This is what God showed me about when God is your spare wheel. Spare wheel, as in you only pray when incidents and accidents come up. Basically you have an IF/THEN prayer life. What is an IF/THEN prayer life?!? It basically means that IF something outrageous happens, something you didn’t see coming, you have exhausted all other options and are forced to turn to God, THEN you pray. God is your backup plan. You only go to Him when you are in great need. But IF that is not the case THEN your prayer life does not exist. YOUR PRAYER LIFE IS CONDITIONAL. #ouchthathurt Certain conditions and prerequisites have to be met in order for you to communicate with God. It sounds really bad when you put it like that doesn’t it? But that’s what it is. If these conditions aren’t met, then you don’t find yourself praying and that shouldn’t be the case. Prayer should be a common occurrence, not a sporadic incident. If you are like me, you are so guilty of this. Essentially, you do your own thing when God is your spare tire, you are in the driver’s seat, you are directing your own path and its only when something goes terribly wrong that you find yourself offering up a prayer. God being your spare tire reminds me of those people in all of our lives that we only hear from and see when someone is sick, dying or getting married. I personally find that incredibly annoying…how do you think God feels. Oh she only talks to me when things get bad or she needs something. It’s like you only acknowledge God when something BIG happens. This is when you need to expand your definition of BIG. God woke you up this morning. That is huge! Someone didn’t wake up this morning, someone passed on during the night. We can’t only acknowledge God when we are forced to do so, when we don’t feel in control, not realizing that we were never in control in the first place. God is in control of the universe, but He is a gentleman and gives us free will and will allow us to take the reins until we realize that He knows far better than us and we let Him take the reins.

            Sometimes we look at our relationship with God and wonder why we aren’t growing and thriving in our relationship with Him. I would say, take a look at your prayer life. How often do you talk to the Father? I saw this on Twitter once, “You are currently as close to God as you want to be.” If talking is a huge part of your good, thriving relationships with people why wouldn’t it be a huge part of your relationship with God. We have to be intentional about setting aside time for God, time to pray and just talk to Him. I myself am still growing in this area y’all and I need to do better. So, how important is your relationship with God? Do you exalt praying to Him, like unto the steering wheel of your car or is praying to Him more like the lowly spare tire in your car, that is often forgotten about until some incident or accident occurs?!? Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?!? #checkyourself I pray that this blesses you like it did me and that if you discover that prayer is like your spare tire that you pray to God and ask Him to help you and that you would make every effort to make prayer your steering wheel. I pray that all of us would have a craving for the time we spend on our knees talking to God, that we would want to talk to Him all the time. I love you all so much and so does God! God bless you!

Mariah