GodReflection: Talking with God.
How about that for a title to start our thoughts as we begin a new year? My guess is, except for Jesus, every human faces periodic doubt about our adequacy to converse with Creator God. A hesitancy which should not seem all that odd since we are sinful human beings. It is not like we can identify with any semblance of a peer-to-peer relationship.
And yet when I open my Bible, I see a God who walks in a garden with his newly created man and woman as he takes part in what I infer to be natural conversation. Yes, our perfect wiring was damaged by the fall, but the Holy design of God’s creative program remains in every human heart.
The word ‘Prayer’ passes through the centuries to describe this conversation between humans and the Holy. When I peruse Scripture, I am struck with how prayer—talking with God—is assumed and runs through the entire storyline. Yet I don’t find an abundance of step-by-step instruction to describe the particulars of human-Holy dialogue. I am getting ahead of myself.
I begin our look at prayer with two polar-opposite observations. The first observation is the complexity we humans associate with the act of prayer. We seem to be in a deep fog of doubt in our ability to talk with the Holy. A quick search on Amazon reveals over seventy thousand books on prayer. When we add the countless millions of unpublished writings, classes, sermon, lessons, and ‘how to’ conversations that surround the subject, none should doubt the Everest of uncertainty that dominates prayer life.
In dramatic contrast lies the simplicity of prayer as taught by Jesus. It is conversation. When Jesus’ disciples asked for instruction, his reply is a model prayer, ‘Our Father in Heaven,’ of about fifty words. I think of one of Jesus stories when he compares the prayer of two people and lauds the one who in complete humility prays only seven heart-felt words, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He follows the story with open arms extended to little children who portray his primary example of correct posture before The Holy. I picture the elementary words of a small child who expresses wants and needs to a parent who loves and cares for them. The language is simple, direct, and filled with passion. It is the language of prayer.
Over the next few weeks, I hope you will join with me, challenge me, and reflect with me as together we add additional words to the ongoing audacity we often feel as humans in our attempt to grow at ease in conversation with the Holy Creator—the Father, Son, and Spirit.
In the process I want to listen again to what Jesus teaches us, examine anew Holy conversation from Scripture, and to look for insight and encouragement found in some of the heart-prayers of disciple of Jesus over the past two millenniums of the church.
I would love to hear from you. Can you identify with this? Do you also have times when your prayer life runs dry because you fail to keep up your side of the conversation? Do we make talking with God harder than it is meant to be?
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection, Let’s Talk with God In 2022.
Gary@GreatCities.org
WWW.GodReflectionblog.wordpress.com
God Reflection 