We just
started reading the book “Prayer” by Philip Yancey…and it is absolutely
brilliant!! It’s one of those books that Katie and I decided that it would be
better to highlight the stuff we DON’T like in the book because it would save
ink. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it! Philip Yancey is on the
same journey we are; questioning whether prayer makes any difference. There’s a
section in this chapter titled “A Vast Difference,” and I would like to share
with you an excerpt from it:
“In prayer I
am approaching the creator of all that is, Someone who makes me feel
immeasurably small. How can I do anything but fall silent in such presence?
More, how can I believe that whatever I say matters to God? If I step back and
look at the big picture, I even wonder why such a magnificent, incomprehensible
God would bother with a paltry experiment like planet earth. Reynolds Price
suggests an answer by analogy: ‘From the range of emotions that might inspire
you or me, or another rational human, to create a universe, love seems the only
one most likely to cause such a mammoth and long-lasting enterprise.’ We understand
God’s motive only by weak comparisons. For example, why do parents endure the
effort, expense and sacrifice involved in raising children? For love. And that,
in fact, is the very motivation described by Jesus: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and
only Son.”
“Saint
Augustine said, ‘Since it is God we are speaking of, you do not understand it.
If you could understand it, it would not be God.’ We who barely comprehend
ourselves are approaching a God we cannot possibly comprehend.”
God’s love
is truly incomprehensible, and I think as a result of our humanity and the
simplicity of our minds in comparison to God’s, we will only be able to catch a
glimpse of how deep God’s love for us runs while we are here on this earth. I
am praying that God will teach me how to
pray—I want to become a better pray-er. I want to know God so much more than I
do, and I want (and need) to do that
through prayer. It is a daily struggle to spend even 15 minutes a day in prayer,
but I challenge each of you to take that time each day and seek the face of our
King, as I do so along with you.
“Though my needs may drive me to prayer, there I
come face to face with my greatest need: an encounter with God’s own self.”
i totally agree with you Hilary
May GOD bless us with are prayers answered and may we have that time for our GOD who is truly too mighty to understand !
Sounds like the God the creator is stirring up a a hunger inside of you:)Keep pressing in Hil.
Hillary,
This is awesome and I so agree with how much God must love you and me! It is incomprehensible!Thank you for the 15 minutes a day prayer challenge.
As I become a better Pray-er and learn how to pray, I know I will be in your good company along the way!
Be encouraged!! Love,Wanda
Yancey hits the nail on the head. It is only because He loves us that He hears our prayers. This concept did not hit me until I was a father for the first time. This deep emotion comes from my having a part in the creation of another human; imagine the feelings of our heavenly Father, the one who created our total being, when we tell Him that we love Him and need Him.
Keep searching and praying. You can pray every moment of the day by keeping Him in your thoughts, thanking Him for the air to breath, for legs to walk, for eyes to see His creation. Each day will bring even more reasons to pray. Nothing matters relative to your relationship with the Trinity. Keep moving forward and thanks for the challenge.
In Christ Alone,
Tom Neal