Are You Really Human?
“These men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God.” Daniel 6:11
Are You Really Human?
Making petition – Ancient Jewish tradition give us another insight into prayer with this word. While be’ah does mean, “to ask or request”, it is really another word for prayer. The word is used only in the book of Daniel. But Jewish scholars tie this word to another Hebrew word (mav’eh) that means “human being”. In other words, to be human is to be the one who prays.
If prayer is soul-breath, if prayer is the longing to be in His will, to know His desire and do it, then the man or woman who attempts to be human without prayer is utterly ruined. Humanity without prayer is humanity stripped of true choice. It is humanity reduced to biomechanical existence.
The consequences are startling: Pray and live as human beings. Do not pray and live as animals. When we consider the alternatives, we are no longer shocked at the general depravity and irresponsibility of most “human” beings. They have opted to live as animals. They have stopped breathing the soul oxygen required to be human. They have devolved into lesser creatures because they no longer yearn for alignment with their Creator.
Paul merely fills in the picture of men and women without prayer. “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, Go gave them over to a depraved mind” (Romans 1:28). Prayer is full acknowledgement of God as Creator, Lord and Savior. Not acknowledging God is to stop praying – and become less than human. When these people stopped praying, they devolved into lesser creatures with animal minds.
Every man or woman of God knows that there is no life without prayer. Every significant interaction in the history of Israel is painted on the canvas of prayer. Why? Because prayer is my desire to be in harmony with God. Prayer is not primarily my attempt to receive God’s help or blessing. Prayer is my cry to become fully human, to be what He designed me to be. Prayer is the acknowledgment that I cannot be myself unless I am first surrendered to Him. Prayer is that yearning to be right with myself and with my Creator at the same time. Prayer is my conversation with God about becoming me. When the conversation stops, becoming me stops and I commit human suicide.
Are you human today? Are you moving toward becoming right with yourself and with God at the same time? Or have you stopped the conversation? Are you slipping toward a lesser creature?
Speak your soul to God and become really human.
