"Come Holy Spirit"
This isn't well thought through, or a rant about anything, just something i've been getting concerned about over the past few weeks...
When I say 'let us pray' what do you expect me to do? I guess that if you're like most people i know, you'll bow your head and close your eyes and expect me to state some truths about God in religious language, and then for me to list a few things that i want God to do for me; stutter over a few words and then say Amen, tip my head back and breathe a sigh of relief? Is that not like swimming a few strokes under water, and then coming back to the surface where i can breathe? Why does is it percieved as such a big effort to pray? Why do people need 'quiet times' where they can make a big effort and pray a really long prayer? Is this the kind of relationship to God that Jesus won for us?
No! Surely not? Jesus came to give us life in abundance, he won us a place in God's family, not in a team of servants. He was comfortable talking with God, he was so intimate with his father that he did only what he saw Dad doing, and only repeated his words! Jesus came to win us a security in our relationship with God... to let us know that we are accepted and loved. He said to cast everything onto him, and take his burden instead because it releases us to experience true life in total abundance.
To worship God in song, to speak to him in prayer, to adore him in creation, to love him with our lives... these things shouldn't be a burden. They shouldn't need us to grit our teeth and cut off ourselves from our brains. They should be natural, they should be like the air we breathe... sin should be like the water that causes us to drown, not the other way round.
I can walk down the street with a t-shirt on with the rain coming down and a smile on my face because i can literally walk in his presence. It doesnt take me 5 minutes to wind up to pray, it takes me 5 minutes of not praying to get wound up! I can live like this because i have the Holy Spirit dwelling within me, not because i'm a special sort of person... The Holy Spirit lets me see God in creation, lets me know God's heart, lets me hear God's voice, lets me feel God's love: if i'm trying to do this on my own then i've missed the point!
"Come Holy Spirit"
When I say 'let us pray' what do you expect me to do? I guess that if you're like most people i know, you'll bow your head and close your eyes and expect me to state some truths about God in religious language, and then for me to list a few things that i want God to do for me; stutter over a few words and then say Amen, tip my head back and breathe a sigh of relief? Is that not like swimming a few strokes under water, and then coming back to the surface where i can breathe? Why does is it percieved as such a big effort to pray? Why do people need 'quiet times' where they can make a big effort and pray a really long prayer? Is this the kind of relationship to God that Jesus won for us?
No! Surely not? Jesus came to give us life in abundance, he won us a place in God's family, not in a team of servants. He was comfortable talking with God, he was so intimate with his father that he did only what he saw Dad doing, and only repeated his words! Jesus came to win us a security in our relationship with God... to let us know that we are accepted and loved. He said to cast everything onto him, and take his burden instead because it releases us to experience true life in total abundance.
To worship God in song, to speak to him in prayer, to adore him in creation, to love him with our lives... these things shouldn't be a burden. They shouldn't need us to grit our teeth and cut off ourselves from our brains. They should be natural, they should be like the air we breathe... sin should be like the water that causes us to drown, not the other way round.
I can walk down the street with a t-shirt on with the rain coming down and a smile on my face because i can literally walk in his presence. It doesnt take me 5 minutes to wind up to pray, it takes me 5 minutes of not praying to get wound up! I can live like this because i have the Holy Spirit dwelling within me, not because i'm a special sort of person... The Holy Spirit lets me see God in creation, lets me know God's heart, lets me hear God's voice, lets me feel God's love: if i'm trying to do this on my own then i've missed the point!
"Come Holy Spirit"
posted by Dan | 7:29 AM
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