If I came up to your face while you were in the midst of your anxiety fit about losing a job, or some other traumatic experience and told you that "You know, you're demonstrating that you don't believe in God"... you might get pretty angry with me. You might even have the right.
But let's break this down a little. Let's take aside and point out a few common facts about God that we can all recite without any consideration as to their impact on our life.
God is God
God knows everything
God controls everything (some might say allow, permit...but those are active verbs. The permission given demonstrates overall control and or influence).
God is everywhere
God made you
God made me
God made everything
From this list, we can easily conclude that there is no situation that God doesn't know about, there isn't a place he hasn't seen and if he created you, he did so for a specific and perhaps multiple purposes.
For those of us who claim to believe in God, what are we demonstrating when we get fearful of something that God created? Or when we get anxious about a situation God already knows about, or when we get angry because we can't control other people that he himself has made?
What we're really saying is that we DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD. We're saying it with our actions...for if we believed we would have no reason to doubt or be anxious. If that's not enough proof, let us go to the scripture;
Be anxious in only some things? Be anxious only in the really big stuff, like hospital visits and cancer? No! Be anxious in NO-THING!
Why does the author say this? Because your life once you reach christianhood changes and is remarkably peaceful all the time...?
Perhaps because HE KNOWS that circumstances will come that will create anxiety and he's telling you how to deal with it? And that in fact God has provisioned for you to be able to not be anxious. And he's provided an outlet....consider the remainder of the scripture....but by prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God.
I believe that if we realized that when we're anxious, etc, that we are really saying that we don't believe in God, we really don't trust God...we would have to find another way to sin...because the truth of the matter would be too obvious to continue in perpetuity.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Praying - I'm Not Reverent
One of the things that I've been working on, been trying to think about in a better way is my prayer. Something that God has been changing in me is my whole idea or concept rather of prayer. Something we as Americans have no concept of is royalty. We have no concept of the majesty of a King or the reverence that a King requires. We have ZERO understanding of what it means to deny person hood in the presence of someone elite.
Oh, how we can feign such reverence, mostly driven by fear or a desire to be a man-pleaser. But true worship can never come from that place. For it's not worship at all, but rather a meaningless and insignificant demonstration of self-preservation. Good Kings and God know this and observe it well.
Something that's on my mind is where I pray, when I pray and how I pray, much more so than what I pray about. The content of my request is known to God already. Sometimes I struggle with how to package what I really want to say, but of more import and for the design of this post, I think it better to suggest what is the framework for reverential prayer.
I've heard it taught, and find it well, so I will repeat. Pray to God, about God, where God is and who he is.
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be THY Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. (now for our supplication) give us, this day, our daily bread. Later Christ talks about himself as bread and his flesh needing to be consumed in order to have eternal life. Coincidence? No I think not.
When I pray, I need to realize that I've been invited to enter the courts of the Heavenly realms and place my petition before the King. THE KING. The first thing that always occurs to me in that place is...
1. What could I possibly have need of that would be important enough to ask my Father for? For out of my respect of him and love him, I desire to bring only that which I know begs his attention and makes me careful to consider how I would ask, when I ask, where I ask and then and least importantly, what I ask for.
I think for me, when I get there, when I get to feel that type of reverence, I suddenly realize that all I've ever asked for and didn't has already been provided and I'm left with "I love you" on my tongue instead of "can I have?" I enjoy that level of worship.
2. I've been placed before a king, not only a king, but THE KING. He's marvelous, powerful, just and great. How would I carry myself if I saw such a thing before my eyes? Would I ramble "dearloawdnhevnly father" all in one syllable? Or would I select my words carefully? Not ramble? Think out what I want to say before I say it? Not endlessly repeat the well known, tried and true colloquialisms of western prayer?
Something that has changed my prayer has been the reading of the Psalms. Look how David and the other Psalmists treat God.
Oh God, whom there is none beside, who can offer you counsel? To whom are you indebted, are there any who can instruct you? What are you lacking? What is MAN! that you would be aware of him?
MAN! I don't know about you, but God's Spirit turns the lights on for me there. I've never prayed so strongly as when I repeat the prayers of those who know God best...and to be quite honest, it always seems more worshipful rather than me repeating something I'm familiar with that feigns reverence but lacks power.
God IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS! Doesn't he deserve to be spoken to like a King?
Oh, how we can feign such reverence, mostly driven by fear or a desire to be a man-pleaser. But true worship can never come from that place. For it's not worship at all, but rather a meaningless and insignificant demonstration of self-preservation. Good Kings and God know this and observe it well.
Something that's on my mind is where I pray, when I pray and how I pray, much more so than what I pray about. The content of my request is known to God already. Sometimes I struggle with how to package what I really want to say, but of more import and for the design of this post, I think it better to suggest what is the framework for reverential prayer.
I've heard it taught, and find it well, so I will repeat. Pray to God, about God, where God is and who he is.
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be THY Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. (now for our supplication) give us, this day, our daily bread. Later Christ talks about himself as bread and his flesh needing to be consumed in order to have eternal life. Coincidence? No I think not.
When I pray, I need to realize that I've been invited to enter the courts of the Heavenly realms and place my petition before the King. THE KING. The first thing that always occurs to me in that place is...
1. What could I possibly have need of that would be important enough to ask my Father for? For out of my respect of him and love him, I desire to bring only that which I know begs his attention and makes me careful to consider how I would ask, when I ask, where I ask and then and least importantly, what I ask for.
I think for me, when I get there, when I get to feel that type of reverence, I suddenly realize that all I've ever asked for and didn't has already been provided and I'm left with "I love you" on my tongue instead of "can I have?" I enjoy that level of worship.
2. I've been placed before a king, not only a king, but THE KING. He's marvelous, powerful, just and great. How would I carry myself if I saw such a thing before my eyes? Would I ramble "dearloawdnhevnly father" all in one syllable? Or would I select my words carefully? Not ramble? Think out what I want to say before I say it? Not endlessly repeat the well known, tried and true colloquialisms of western prayer?
Something that has changed my prayer has been the reading of the Psalms. Look how David and the other Psalmists treat God.
Oh God, whom there is none beside, who can offer you counsel? To whom are you indebted, are there any who can instruct you? What are you lacking? What is MAN! that you would be aware of him?
MAN! I don't know about you, but God's Spirit turns the lights on for me there. I've never prayed so strongly as when I repeat the prayers of those who know God best...and to be quite honest, it always seems more worshipful rather than me repeating something I'm familiar with that feigns reverence but lacks power.
God IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS! Doesn't he deserve to be spoken to like a King?
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