SPEAKING WITH GOD

For the last several weeks we have been exploring practical ways of deepening our relationship with God. Our focus up until this point has been on deepening spiritual intimacy through knowing more about God. We’ve looked at such things as reading and study, meditation and the Holy Spirit’s illumination. These activities form the basis of growing our relationship with God.

But we mustn’t stop there. What we learn about God prepares us to relate to him, especially through speaking to him. I like the way William Shedd put this when he wrote, “It is not sufficient to commune with the truth, for truth is impersonal. We must commune with the God of truth. It is not enough to study and ponder the contents of religious books, or even the Bible itself. We must actually address the Author of the Bible, in entreaties and petitions” (Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 291). Commenting on Luther’s spiritual life, he adds, “The peculiar vigour and vitality of Luther’s religion should be traced not solely to his reception of a doctrine, even so vital a doctrine as justification by faith, but to direct intercourse with God” (Ibid., p. 293).

We can state it as a practical rule that we have never read and studied well if we have not been moved to worship. Learning about God should lead us to conversation with God. It should prompt us firstly to praise and adore him for who is, to thankfulness for what he has done, and to confession for how far our lives have fallen short of his glory.

Beyond that, it should also encourage us to be open-hearted in sharing our burdens, desires and needs with him – all in a way that is consistent with what we have learned of him through his word. It is this aspect of prayer that particularly helps nurture intimacy with God. It is when we stop play acting and trying to be religious and speak to God with the reverent and humble openness of little children that we develop intimacy with him. By pouring out our hearts into the loving heart of God we discover one who is our Healer, Comforter, Guide and Friend.

In the past two years I’ve begun to study the ways the psalmists of the Old Testament related to God in their trials and joys. As one writer put it, the Psalms give us “a window into the hearts” of those who wrote them. They enable us to see what these godly men were thinking, feeling and desiring. They show us how they grappled with doubts, responded to deliverances, thought of their enemies, and coped with depression. They provide a multitude of insights into how to connect with God and in doing so invite us to a relationship of depth and closeness with him.

As incredible as it might seem, this is what the Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth had in mind when he made us in his own image. He meant us to be creatures who would know him and walk with him in a relationship of enjoyment, understanding and dependency. We misunderstand prayer when we see it as a religious duty to be performed out of necessity. Instead, it ought to be the vehicle of conversation with the One who loves us with an indescribable love, and who wants us to live our lives in constant fellowship with him.

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