For the past few months, I have been recognizing the incredible value and power of prayer - in my marriage, in my parenting, in my friendships, in my friendship with God. I used to be hesitant with my prayers. I didn't want to go too deep...probably because I knew what I would find. I knew it wasn't a surprise to God what was tucked deep down in the depths of my being because, well, He's God! He is omnipresent and does know all things. I believe we often fool ourselves into thinking otherwise, in order to fool ourselves into believing that our sin isn't "that bad," and therefore, not that noticeable to God.
Newsflash! He doesn't miss a thing. Good or bad.
He is El Roi - the God who sees.
Makes you want to run and hide, doesn't it? Well, go and ahead and try to hide...He'll be there, too. That is exactly what we do, though, isn't it? We know that He knows our sin and wretchedness, but we hate to admit it and deal with it so we run. We pray only to a certain point. We listen to only so much of what the pastor preaches. We pick and choose what we want to hear (and usually it's all about what we ARE doing right and then we relish in how "righteous" we think we are...how foolish.), and try to push down the conviction rising up inside of us. We stomp our feet in protest. At least, that's what I do. I understand if you don't want to admit stomping your feet, too. I've been there. It's part of running away. I'm an expert at stomping.
I will warn you, though, that eventually your feet will begin to hurt. It doesn't take very long to get to that point, really. And yet many of us are still so stubborn and prideful and we continue to foolishly stomp our feet - swollen and throbbing with pain.
But, oh, how we are missing out on freedom and joy! Conviction is painful, yes. It is uncomfortable and it causes us to squirm within our skin. That.is.the.point. If it didn't feel weird, and sometimes unbearable, we wouldn't recognize that something just isn't right. God gave us the freedom to choose. We can choose to ignore that soul-pulling or we can turn and face our sin and realize just how dirty we really are.
Ugh. I don't like dirt.
I wash my hands a ton every day because I CAN NOT stand for them to be dirty or to feel sticky. How much more should I be disgusted by my sin?! No matter how many times I shower my soul with feel-good phrases or self-help books, I will never feel clean until I have ran to the mercy seat and submersed my soul into the grace and forgiveness that God freely offers. And we reach that mercy seat through prayer.
Prayer is not a checklist. It is not a deal-making process. It is not a Christmas wishlist. Prayer is coming before the Almighty God, your Creator and Savior, and plugging into the only source that can make you clean and bring you freedom.
I encourage you to stop fooling yourself...recognize the squirming and run to the mercy seat. What joy, peace and forgiveness you will find!
No comments:
Post a Comment