I love change. My husband and I have been married almost 20 years and we’ve had the adventure of four state-to-state moves. Meeting new people. Experiencing new “norms.” Learning to respond appropriately when someone shouts “O-H.” I love it. There is one thing I do not like about moving, the paperwork.
There is the wonderful paperwork of buying a house, shutting off utilities at one place and getting them started at the new place. This past move included the joys of getting our kids enrolled in school. But the worst paperwork for me is going to a new doctor. Don’t know why, but I dread the paperwork regarding insurance and medical history. Can’t they come up with a body scan that can just tell them everything they need to know? Didn’t they have something like that in Star Trek?
Ok, so prayer and paperwork. Does your prayer time sometimes feel like you are just supplying information that 1) God should already know or 2) can’t He figure it out without you telling him? Do you question the purpose of the procedure? Or maybe, like me, you sometimes feel like you are writing a letter that is going to be sent to heaven by snail mail. And you’re pretty sure heaven is farther away and harder to get to than the unknown people groups in Asia – which also would mean you probably didn’t write the letter in a language God will understand. But you do it. You complete the paperwork and check it off your to-do list. Prayer sent.
Fortunately, prayer is not like paperwork. It’s not a letter – why was I taught to start prayer with “Dear God?” And, as much as I love the internet, prayer is not even like email or instant messaging. Facebook is close… no, not really. 🙂 When it feels like any of those things, I have to ask myself, am I opening myself up to the reality of who God is?
God is. Say that out loud. God is. In my humanness I want to add another word after the word “is.” But with God, no other word is necessary. We can add other words that would be true but when I’m praying (talking directly to him), grasping the reality that He is, makes a difference. All that exists, all that I experience, is because God is. God is love. Yes, but even if that were not true about God’s character or about love (depending on how you look at that statement), God still is.
Do you want to get away from the prayer feels like paperwork rut? Before you start spewing your prayer requests, take a deep breath and let the reality of God invade you. That breath is because God is. That thought you are having is because God is. That emotion you are experiencing (even if you feel emotionless) is because God is. Wait until you sense His presence in some tangible way. For me it’s sort of an inner tingling sensation that goes throughout my body or maybe like a wave or gentle wind that moves from my head down. (It’s similar to my first experience of being injected at the hospital with a pain killer that I could feel as it moved through my body.) Maybe for you it’s just “knowing” in some way that doesn’t have a physical description. The first time I recall experiencing God is in this way, I did not have a physical sensation but I knew that God was present because I thought differently.
This may sound weird to some of you and that’s ok. Others know exactly what I’m talking about but would describe your experience totally different. For those of you seeking to understand the concept. Keep seeking. It took me seven years of searching and that was after being raised in church and thinking I was a “good Christian” most of my life. And the really cool thing is that I’m still learning, still experience God is in new ways. I am so glad I cannot fully comprehend God. That would make the rest of this life pretty boring or frustrating. Actually, it is when I’m feeling like I know God fully and understand Him that I can easily fall back into the prayer is paperwork rut.
This is the difference between following Christ and practicing any religion (including Christianity). Jesus came, died, and was resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we could experience God is from the inside out rather than just in the paperwork. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post. Ask questions, give your experience, let’s encourage each other.
Come Holy Spirit. Breathe on us. Fill us with Life so that we may grasp God is.
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