This may be an on going topic, but I have been challenged lately to view God more as a person and less as an idea or theory. While this may sound basic and obvious on the surface, I have found that it has some radical implications both personally and for the church. For example:
Prayer: If God is a person (especially an omniscient one) how is my "laundry list" praying honoring to Him? If not, how am I to relate to Him through prayer?
Bible study: If God is a person, isn't Bible study really my chance to get to know Him, not just how He wants me to behave (See Phil 3)?
Salvation: If God is a person, isn't salvation His means of permanently restoring a relationship that was irreparably damaged by both my heritage (Adam) and I may sinful actions?
Sin: If God is a person (especially a holy and just one), doesn't sin hurt Him? Not that my (our) sins lessen Him or detract from His deity, but rather in some sense we really do grieve Him when we sin.
Evangelism: If God is a person, shouldn't evangelism be less about what's in it for me (as great as that is!) and more about God's fervent desire to restore what our sin and rebellion has destroyed. See Luke 15. In each of these parables, God is the main character, earnestly seeking to find the lost and give life to the dead so that His relationship with us (and us with each other) may be restored.
My prayer, self oriented first and foremost, is that we begin to see God more as He is. Awesome, Holy and Transcendent, but also Personal, Loving and Compassionate. Most of all, I pray that grasp what it really means to call the Creator and Sustainer of the universe "Abba" (daddy).
SDG
I hesitate just a moment before I write this, out of fear that it may be flat wrong and now you and the rest see my errors written in cyberspace. But because we are friends, I'm willing to share a small thought I have on prayer.
ReplyDeleteI know this is an area you have spent much time studying and even praying over. I have not. But my (perhaps) overly simplest view of prayer is that God is a person and He is a personable God to me. I view prayer as my opportunity to spend time with Him, my opportunity to speak with Him. When I had two babies under the age of 2, there was a period of time when my prayer life was practically nonexistent. Mt day started when a baby cried and ended in exhaustion (I think you've probably been there years ago). I didn't have consistent blocks of time to devote to quite prayer. Because I did not have time to begin formally, the time to develop lengthy conversation, nor the time to end properly, I did not pray at all.
But then a wise women told me a truth that truly changed my prayer life. She reminded me that God desires us to pray unceasingly (I Thessalonians 5:17). If we are praying all day, then we can pray any thought - every thought. As a result, I found myself "talking" to God all day long. Not necessarily beginning with "Dear Heavenly Father", nor an "Amen" at the end. I just send my thoughts to Him as if He were standing right beside me - just an ongoing conversation.
I am not saying there it is not important to have those times of worshipful prayer, times deep with emotion both joy and grief, times when we seek forgiveness or having deep communion with our Father. But on a day by day basis, the times when I walk the closest with Him, is when I pray unceasingly, as a person, close enough for me to hold His hand and feel His breath.