Approaching Jesus

Bartimaues was a blind man who came to Jesus for healing. He'd probably been blind for many years and may have received a lot of abuse from the community because of his condition. When he approached Jesus, Jesus asked him "What do you want me to do for you?" (Mark 10:51). Bartimaues said "I want to see!". And in response to this Jesus healed him.

Bartimaues knew what he wanted Jesus to do for him.

Romans 8:26 is a great passage to help us in our prayer struggles

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."

This verse is talking about those deep cries out to God through the Spirit when there is so much going on, that we just don't know where to start in our prayers. But I think there's a difference between that crying out to God, and general non-specific prayers out of laziness. It's not for anyone else to judge where you're at in your prayer life; only God knows where your heart stands.

I was fascinated by the passage of Bartimaues because I wondered how often i'd have an answer for Jesus if he asked me that same question! Do we really know what we want Jesus to do for us?

I don't think it's a bad thing to have general prayers, because at times there is an overwhelming amount to pray for and it's hard to know who or what to start with. It's probably even good to have times of general crying out to God.

But if our prayers are continually general because of laziness (not pain) I think it could come across to God like this: Imagine going round to a friend's house who you don't really want to see, but haven't spoeken to in a long time. You knock on the door and they answer seeming very pleased to see you. They next invite you in but you say you'd rather stay in the doorway. Then he or she asks if you came over to talk about anything in particular to which you reply "errrr i'm not sure to be honest. But do you mind if I just hang around here for a minute? Then I'll leave if that's okay".

That seems really strange to me but sometimes I think that my relationship with God and prayers are like that.

So i'm convinced that Jesus wants us to be specific with our prayers for both ourselves and others. Time and time again in the Gospels we read of people who approach Jesus knowing they need him to heal something specific. Or where people bring others to Christ knowing that they need him in some way. And the Holy Spirit will guide us.

The bible is clear in showing that there's no one way to approach Jesus. So for me, at the moment, the challenge is this.

If Jesus sat down next to me, told me to be quiet and looked me in the eyes right now and asked, "Don, what do you want me to do for you?"...would I be able to respond?

And it's only by the Cross of Christ that we are able to even think about a relationship with our heavenly Father.