Nothing to Declare?
- Posted by Steve K. on March 9th, 2009 filed in General
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I’m getting ready for an international trip, and I’m anticipating going through a customs check in at least a couple of stops along the way. This is where one might find a “Nothing to Declare” sign, right? Well, in communication, there is no such thing as “Nothing to Declare.” Whatever we say or don’t say is declaring something.
When I’ve talked to missionaries about communication, I’ve tried to stress that asking for prayer and financial support is an important way of declaring our dependency on God. In a recent blog post, “Irish Calvinist” blogger Erik Raymond says it a slightly different way: “Prayerlessness is a Declaration of Self-Sufficiency.”
Raymond writes, “Prayer is a humbling thing. And failure to pray reveals as much about our prideful self-consumption as our misconceptions about self-sovereignty, divine power, and the glory of Christ. We need a simple jagged command like this here (Col. 4:2a) to puncture our imaginations, flood our hearts with sacred truth and bring us into the reality of God-centered dependence.”
I would add, failure to ask for prayer (and financial support) from others reveals much the same. Thanks, Erik, for this important reminder!
(HT: Daily Scroll)
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