Addressing God

How do you address God in prayer? Is it personal or is it stale and rehearsed? Unless I find the right name to address God by, I have to question from the get go how free or real my connection with Him might be. If I can only address God on general terms, I cannot find a personal connection. If I have to put the word "the" before the term I use to address God, it is only an anonymous prayer. It is general and not personal.

There are moments you read through the Psalms and other spiritual writers to find a bursting prayer connection, and it most often comes from the address of God at the get go. Anthony Bloom says these moments "burst out with something which has the quality of a nickname, something which no one else could possibly say...which is made possible only because there is a relationship."

The Psalmist comes right out and says, "You are my Joy." Not that God is joy (which he is). Not that God is the Almighty (which He is). Our prayer becomes personal when we are not only stating facts about God, but when we come out of the gate personally addressing God with relational terms.

You are my God. You are my joy. You are my refuge. You are my greatest good...

Severed parts

sev All who are in Christ are in Christ together. We truly are connected in all the greatest ways because of the gospel.

The Body of Christ has been preached for centuries, but something I do not recall hearing about the body and its parts, which we are, is what happens when they are severed from the body.

The Body of Christ only grows when it is held together. When it is disconnected parts, those parts die and cannot continue forward. Stay close and connected to the gospel and to the Body of Christ.

Over and over again I watch people disconnect themselves from the Body of Christ and attempt to go it alone. With the fervor of Hebrews 10, I say, "DO NOT give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. " I have told people more times than I care to count: if you attempt to grow and move on your own, you will fail. If we play out the realities of a Body, not only will you fail, your will likely die.

Swatting at Doves

We most often are moving and going so frantically that God’s peace and blessing cannot land upon us.

If God’s peace descends like a dove, I am all but swatting it away with my hectic grasping after success as defined by the American Church Dream.

My priority is to be concentrated on Abba. His closeness is my ultimate good, and not my success as is demanded of me. I spend too much of my heart, mind, energy, and time comparing myself to others.

Abba, I need you. I need you to be close to my heart and mind. I need your peace if I can just sit still long enough that it might descend upon me.

Cold prayers

When I think honestly about my prayers, I think of all the warm, deep, and intense prayers I can give in the concerns which matter the most to me. When it comes to those things, my heart is open, and all of my center is engaged. Does that mean that God is my priority? Nope! It only means that what I am praying about matters to me.

When I make my passionate, deep, and intense prayers about things I really care about, I move right on to the next thing, and that thing does not matter as much. Suddenly, my prayer goes cold and routine. Has God changed? Of course not. Has he grown cold and routine? Clearly not!

It only means that all my passion and intensity was not because of God's presence and closeness to me. It had nothing to do with my faith or longing for Him and Him alone. It was only about my concerns, not for God.

On God opening and closing doors

door"If you only knew..." God says with the tears of Jesus in Luke 19:42 that I am held accountable for what I refuse to see or am unable to see.

Sometimes God opens a door I refuse to go through. And when God shuts a door, that door will never be opened again. There will be other doors, yes, but it serves to remind me that sometimes doors are shut that never needed to be if I had only gone through them while they were open.

Blameless

"(22)For I have kept the ways of the LORDAnd have not acted wickedly against my God... (25)According to my cleanness before His eyes." -2 Samuel 22:22,25

It is difficult to believe verse 22 without reading verse 25. David would not be blameless in our eyes. In our eyes, David is an adulterer and murderer.

In God's mercy-tinted eyes, David is forgiven and blameless. How God sees us is all that is truly important.

Far be it from me

"No! I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing." 2 Samuel 24:24 My worship and my very life is a sacrifice (Rom. 12) offered to God. This verse is one of my favorite reminders that we are always to bring out best to God. It ought to be a sacrifice. It ought to cost me something or it is not a sacrifice. If it cost me nothing it is too comfortable to be called worship. It is too easy to be called sacrifice.

Far be it from me to keep coming to each Sunday with worship I am not even invested in. Far be it from me to keep living a life for Christ that cost me nothing.

Loving eyes

yellow piano 2His love is more potent than any other because His eyes are more powerful than the rest His eyes see through the filth and crust they see through perversion

His eyes caught and catch glimpses of the Divine intention hidden in every person in every way His first loving act is to give new eyes

Whom have I

but youWhom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.

But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the LORD God my refuge, That I may tell of all Your work.                                                 - Psalm 73:25-28

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"Whom have I in heaven but You?" If I got to heaven and received all the promises of heaven, but God was not there, would I still want to go? If Jesus were not there, do I still even want it? I want to live a life now where I desire nothing but Jesus. I want god to be my only desire; not his blessings, not peace, not joy, but God alone. I want my heart to live a life by which God IS MY FULL PORTION forever; where my heart and mind fully realize that my greatest good in life is nearness to God.

I desire for God to be my greatest desire; not only His blessings, joy, peace, or provision. All those things are OF GOD, and that means peace, joy, provision, and refuge will only be found in Him.

This means that God is strength and refuge. He will only be MY refuge when i am found near and in Him.

Without a pail

wellThe woman at the well in John 4 tells Jesus, "Sir, you have nothing to draw [water] with, and the well is deep."

While we realize she does not understand the water Jesus is referring to, there is a strong reflection for me to find myself in reading this story.

She does not know the power and ability Jesus has. She does not look at the circumstance at hand and think anyone could even possibly make this request happen. Jesus makes a request of her, and she is simply showing him the request is literally impossible. She does not yet understand or trust that what Jesus asks of her is actually possible or He would not have asked her to do it. She does not trust that what Jesus asks of her is possible, because of Jesus, to actually be done.

I sit here looking over my life at this time and of the things Jesus has called me to do and pursue in life. I look at my circumstances in life and will almost always wonder how in the world he could expect me to draw from such a deep well without a pail. Life is not exactly conducive to what you are saying, Jesus. Those things are literally impossible.

It is easy enough to think, "I only doubt myself, but not Jesus." But if I am honest, I do not doubt myself. I know what I am capable and incapable of. Suddenly I am stricken with the reality that I do not trust Jesus.