A lot of us aren't good at being consistent, right? I obviously struggle with it, as evidenced by how the last post was in January or something. I think one area where I really struggle with being consistent is my prayer life. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (ESV) says simply, "Pray without ceasing."
If only, right?
If only, right?
I have a lot of Christian friends, and sometimes I'll admit I'm a little jealous of their prayer lives. They can just pray and be so chill with God at the drop of a hat. They sound so eloquent when they pray, while I'm over here stumbling and not really being sure what I should say. How should I talk to God? I understand the model of the Lord's Prayer, and I get the format. I don't get how I should approach the subject.
I was talking with a lovely friend and mentor on Monday last week about that. I was explaining her that I didn't know how to approach God, and I gave her the two conflicting views of God I had that made it so confusing for me.
View #1 is a cute litte story!:
There is a young girl, only seven years old. She often falls into the mud because she doesn't pay attention to the paths her father the King had paved for her to keep her safe. On one such day, she was walking on the path with her favorite doll. The King had it especially made for her and she treasured it like nothing else. But she was a very silly girl and she wandered off her father's path, only to drop her dear favorite doll in the mud. It was filthy and she began to cry.
There is a young girl, only seven years old. She often falls into the mud because she doesn't pay attention to the paths her father the King had paved for her to keep her safe. On one such day, she was walking on the path with her favorite doll. The King had it especially made for her and she treasured it like nothing else. But she was a very silly girl and she wandered off her father's path, only to drop her dear favorite doll in the mud. It was filthy and she began to cry.
She ran to the war room, where her father was having a terribly important war meeting with generals and high ranking officials. Every eye was trained on her as she entered, but she payed no mind. She wasn't there to see the King in his war meeting, she was there to see her father who loved her. A general rose to send the little girl out but before he could, the king was kneeling next to her and had his arms around her, comforting her and cleaning off her doll.
The king was incredibly important. He had a lot to deal with. There was a war raging at the edges of his kingdom, people were enslaved that he was working to free, and there were starving children that he had to feed, people sick and dying, and there were those who pretended that the King wasn't actually in charge of the kingdom they lived in that he was working with. But when his daughter came in, he saw her face and her doll and he knew what had happened. She had wandered off of the path that he had taken such careful time to pave for her, just like he knew she would. She had ruined the special doll he had made just for her with his own hands. And he wasn't angry with her for it. He loved her for it and promised to fix the doll. He asked her to stay on the path he had made, knowing well that she would wander off again and that he would forgive her again and love her just the same.
View #2 isn't a story, but a picture:
There is a terrifying machine stored in an underground bunker. This is a weapon that can destroy all life on the planet; perhaps even on the planets nearby, if any life exists. And there you are, standing before it. You know very well this weapon has the potential to kill you at any second. Just boom, and your life could be over. And yet everything in the world draws its energy from the machine. It is a massive machine, immensely complex the source of power to everything in the world that has the potential to destroy everything in a matter of seconds. You are incredibly careful.
God is a loving father, a gentle king who has a whole lot to deal with, but chooses to deal with me. But he's also immensely powerful. The Mighty Creator of the universe with the earth as His footstool, who knows the beginning from the end, who knows every vain, mean, selfish thought I have and loves me despite all of that.
I know that God deals kindly with me because of Jesus, not begrudgingly because of my sin. I know that He loves me infinitely and more than I could ever understand. I also understand that He is mighty and strong and infinitely powerful. So how do I approach Him? How do we, as the church approach the Creator?
With fear and trembling? As His bride? As his child? As a friend? As all of these things?
For the moment, I think the important thing is that we simply approach Him.
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