Moving {Closer} to God

If you only talked to your best friend when something was wrong, would they really be your best friend? What if you only spoke to them when you needed something? Doesn't sound like a very personal relationship, does it? Well sadly, that's how must of us are with Jesus. We only talk to him when we need something from him.

There's a song that played once at the church I used to go to, and it went something like

"You say that you love me,

that you can't live without me,

but then why do you call me,

only when you need me."

You can't have an intimate relationship with someone if that's the only time you talk to them. We have to take that step to push ourselves, to spend time with God regularly. I struggle with that a lot, but God makes everything better. I find peace in him. He is Jehovah-Shalom, meaning "God is peace." (Judges 6:24 NLT) [The Hebrew word for this can be translated either as Jehovah-Shalom or Yahweh-Shalom. I chose Jehovah because I liked the sound better :P]

It's stupid how I stray away from him and try to do things my own way, just to end up crawling back to him days later. But that's how we are. We're corrupt and broken people, and we need God in our lives as much as possible.

And that's not going to happen if you only talk to him when something is wrong.

So I want to challenge you. Sometime this weekend, take some time just to hang out with Jesus. It can be through a devotional book, through reading the bible, lying down and listening to some good Christian music, anything that can get you closer to God. 

Because honestly, he doesn't need us. But we need him. 

So let's make the best of it.

Oh, and if you'd like to read more about the names of God, you can click here. It's where I got the information behind Jehovah/Yahweh-Shalom. :D

Closer by Sanctus Real. It goes great with this post :) Have a great day and God bless!!

Thy Kingdom Come, My Kingdom Go

I'm sure every Christian (and most non-Christians, for that matter) are familiar with the Model Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13. A lot of people say it on a regular day basis, for example: me. When I was 9 or 10 years old, I'd start all my prayers with the Model Prayer just because I could, then I'd say thank you for this and thank you for that and I pray for this and I pray for that and then say "Amen", then I'd forget to pray for my cat and dogs so I went back into a 5 second long prayer: "It's me again, thank you for Sassy, General, and Trooper. Amen!"

My prayers have changed since then, but I never forget to model my prayers around the Model Prayer. Recently I read a quote in a study Bible that really inspired me:

"Before we can pray 'Thy Kingdom come,' we must be willing to pray 'my kingdom go'"
-Alan Redpath

When I was young, I prayed to God that His Kingdom would come every night but I never really reached a full state of humility until just about last year or so. I just want to point out that this quote can be interpreted as a quote about humility, but I think it is about prayer (I wouldn't really know, though, because I don't know the context of this quote).

One day, I read somewhere about how God doesn't listen to your prayers unless you ask for forgiveness first. I thought that the statement was kinda strange though, and I really wasn't quite sure whether or not to agree with it due to the lack of Scripture reference supporting this statement. So I decided to, instead of asking my dad or another Biblically educated adult, to investigate it myself. I went straight to the Model prayer.

As I looked at this prayer and compared it to other prayers in the Bible, I noticed how most of them have a specific order. There were three things that this prayer and others did in the same order and they are as follows:

1. Acknowledge God's glory

2. Ask for forgiveness

3. Give God your burdens and requests

I want to first talk about acknowledging God's glory. Matthew 6:9, Nehemiah 1:5, Jonah 2:2-6, and Psalm 115:1 are good examples of this. We are not trying to remind God of His awesomeness, but we are trying to remind OURSELVES of His awesomeness. Shortly after I had studied about prayer, my family and I visited a church and in Sunday School, the Sunday School teacher asked that the students (including me) would take turns opening the class in prayer. I was sitting on the end and I was the last one to pray. As the other guys prayed for forgiveness and asked special requests, I noticed that very little was said about God's glory. So when it came around my turn, I simply praised God for his glory and His ultimate power. When I was done, everyone was just looking at me saying, "That was really good!" I don't mean to brag about it or anything, but I just want to throw that out there to say that we constantly need to be reminded of God's glory and of His power.

Next, I want to focus on asking for forgiveness (Matthew 6:12, 1 Kings 8:30, Psalms 25:11). Forgiveness is very necessary. Not only is it to gain forgiveness for your sins, but it's also, I think, to remind you of your place. It should remind you that you are evil, and only God is good and powerful enough to forgive you of your evilness. These first two stages, if you will, of prayer gives us the humility to understand that God, and God alone is great and is listening. I believe it is foolish to pray to God with a prideful heart and jump straight to your wish list without giving God any credit for who He is.

And, for the last part, give your burdens to God. Give your troubles to God in complete humility, and be content with what God gives you. Prayer is a weapon for peace, it is a great ally of the Christian faith, it is our connection between God and man. Prayer is a privilege and a great honor accessible only to God's image-bearers! Use it wisely!

In Christ,
Paul