Psalm 33:9 “For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command.”
Driving the long trek from
Southern California to Central California gave
me plenty of time to listen to some of the great Christian teaching CD that I’ve
picked up over the last couple years. In one series on the Lord’s Prayer, I
learned that prayer is an important discipline to practice if we are to develop
godly wisdom, and so we want to have a good understanding of what Scripture has
to say about it. There is much to keep in mind as we approach the Lord in
prayer, but we will not go wrong if our attention is focused on two key truths
when we pray; knowing God and knowing ourselves. Knowing the identity of the
One to whom we are praying is essential. Not only knowing to whom we are
speaking, but also remembering who we are. I once heard it said: “Two things I
know for sure: (1) there is a sovereign God and (2) He is not me. Almighty God
is the Creator and I am the created creature by that God. He is infinite and I
am finite.
Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”
I’d read that over the past
few decades, there has been a move toward reducing formality in our culture and
making all of our relationships far more casual than our forefathers would have
considered them. We have lost much in the process. In humanizing God in our
minds, in a very real sense, we have lost an awareness of the One whom we
approach in our worship and prayer. To take the name of the Lord our God in vain is to take God lightly. All too often, we view God as merely a
friend. The problem is that we have turned the concept of the holy Father and
Son into our “pal” as persons who are on essentially the same level that we
are. Our Creator is not our pal; rather, He is our Sovereign Lord. So, when we
come to the Lord in Prayer, we must remember who He is, namely, the great and
mighty King in whom belongs all honor and glory.
1 Timothy 1:17 “Now to the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
The fact that God is not
merely our friend is actually a great benefit for us. Mere friends cannot
rescue us from our sin. Only the sovereign Lord of all can give us such things.
Let us take care to approach our Maker with the reverence and praise that He
deserves, and may we always exult Him as our loving and sovereign Master and
King.
In Christ, Brian
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