First Prayer

Possibly the first prayer recorded in scripture could be Noah calling down a curse on his son Ham for making fun of him when he was drunk. But that's really prayer. Prayer is very simply a conversation with God. So, unless you count Adam telling God that he was hiding because he knew he was naked after the fall, the first real "conversation with God" appears in Genesis 15 (Scripture references from Eugene Petersen's paraphrase the Message*):

1After all these things, the Word of GOD came to Abram in a vision: "Don't be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield. Your reward will be grand!"2Abram said, "GOD, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I'm childless...

Its important to remember that many scholars consider "the Word of the Lord" to be the pre-incarnate Christ- so this is a conversation with Jesus!

Also, notice that Abraham has his priorities right. He doesn't love things and use people, he puts people above things. What good are all the posessions in the world without a family to share them with?

5Then he took him outside and said, "Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You're going to have a big family, Abram!"

It may not be so hard to believe that there's a God, what's hard is to believe IN God. To trust Him, to believe His promises. It's unbelievable how much He wants to bless us if we let Him. Can you count the stars?

6And he believed! Believed GOD! God declared him "Set-Right-with-God." (righteous)

This verse is at the core of what the whole Bible is all about. Faith, trust- not just believing that there is a God, but believing IN God. Paul talks about this verse in Romans 4:

19Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. 20He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, 21sure that God would make good on what he had said. 22That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." 23But it's not just Abraham; 24it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. 25The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

Prayer:

Lord,

Be my shield -guard me and keep me safe
Be my great reward -help me to value my relationship with You more than anything else
Help me to keep my priorities right -to value people more than things or money
Help me to count the blessings you shower on me, rather than dwell on my problems or on what I don't have
Help me to believe IN You -and trust in Your promises
Make me right with you -so that I can have a relationship with You and so that we can talk together.

Thank you that through faith in Jesus we can be right -we can talk

In Jesus' Name,
Amen