A Distant God

The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. (Proverbs 15:29 ESV)

Growing up I always pictured God up in the clouds looking down on His people. Nothing in culture really tries to make that image incorrect. In fact, the majority of pictures, movies etc.. that depict God are those of a god in the sky, far away looming over the earth. When we pray we feel we have to have these powerful prayers so they can reach into the heavens and allow God to hear them.

As that verse says, we should not feel as if the Lord is far away. The wicked are the ones that feel God is far away or that there is no God. If we are pursuing a relationship with God, His presence should be always near. Prayers should be a conversation not a ritual. I think we can get caught up in our prayers and make it to much of a contest of how elegant we can pray or that we have to say the right things around certain people or they may see us as less holy.

It's simply a conversation, a relationship between two people.

God knows our prayers even before we speak them. He loves to have conversations with us like a child telling his father how his day was or what's been bothering him. We need to be purposed to make it a relationship not religion. Religion can become a system of a right and wrong way or that some prayers, if not spoken with enough theological truth, somehow become invalid or less of a prayer. When the though of religion comes into play, that can make God feel distant and unreachable & that's the opposite of God's purpose in prayer.

Let's try this week to have daily conversations with our Father. To have talks as if God is right beside you, because He is! I know this will be hard for some because of how we have been raised but try to do it without closing your eyes & bowing your head.

The Lord just wants to talk & He is closer than you think.

Grace and Peace
Ben