How Far Away is God?

Acts 17:27 - That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. 

Many see prayer as an obstacle course to be surmounted. Prayer seems to be some difficult or mysterious thing. Some wonder if there is a certain way to approach prayer. Do I have to use certain religious words? How do I address God? Still others wonder if God wants to hear from them at. "Am I worthy of asking God for anything?", they might ask. These questions show a lack of understanding about prayer. 

Prayer is a two way communication between man and God. Many become frustrated with prayer because they wonder if God is even hearing them. The truth is, as this scripture tells us, God is never very far from any of us. He is always ready to listen when one of his children pray and he always answers. The problem is we don't always recognize His answer because we may not know how to look or listen for it. 

God answers us in different ways. He may immediately speak the answer into our minds. He may lead us to a Bible verse as we are reading that clears up the matter. Often I have been praying about something and then pastor (or an evangelist) will preach on the very thing I was troubled about. This is answered prayer. 

God may send someone to us to confirm his word. A couple of years ago I was praying about returning to school. An evangelist friend of mine called me one day to ask a question. The conversation led to his father-in-law who had graduated from a Christian college and was now teaching. This minister left me with these words: If you will seek God first, he will open the door for you to go back to school. The next day someone from work stopped me and begin to talk to me about going back to school. After this, my pastor asked to talk to me and he felt I should go back to school as well. I realized God had confirmed what I was feeling through three different people. That is the way God works. He always confirms his word. 

Are you struggling with your prayer life? Don't know how to get started? Take some small steps. Don't worry about how others pray. You are your own person and must develop your own relationship with God through prayer. Some may pray louder than others. Some may have bigger vocabularies. Prayer is not a contest. It is simply spending time with God speaking to him and listening for his voice. Above all, don't expect his answers to always come the same way. The wonder of our God is that he is always the same but his manifestations are limitless. He never ceases to amaze us! 

Don't be afraid to try prayer - it really works because God is really never very far from any of us!  

Prayerfully Yours,

Sullivan Jones 

Cognitive Dissonance

Proverbs 19: 21 - There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. 

Over the weekend I attended a men's conference where one of the speakers talked about Cognitive Dissonance. This is a fancy psychological term to say that someone believes something that can not possibly be true because the facts contradict it. One example he gave was of a woman who had a favorite childhood memory of her father reading her a certain book. The book was her favorite because her father read it to her before he died while she was very young. Years later, she learned that the book she held so dear was not published until after the death of her father. He could not possibly have read it to her. She had linked two childhood memories into one. The point of the story was that the mind can play tricks on us.

Consider this scripture from Proverbs. There are many devices in a man's heart. The heart is the Biblical terminology for the mind or the imagination. In other words, we think a lot of things but that doesn't make them all true. When we commune only with ourselves we will convince ourselves of almost anything. We must all have some grounding of truth to base our ideas upon. The only rock solid truth in this world is the word of God. God's counsel will always stand true. Recently, a pastor friend told me that someone asked his opinion about a certain issue. His reply was simple. "My opinion doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is what the word of God says." How true this is. We must base our ideas and opinions on the word of God. The word of God has stood true since before the beginning of time and it will stand true when the world is on fire. We can not afford to commune with our hearts. We must take our advice from the word of God. His word will never fail!

Trusting Him Daily,

Sullivan Jones 

Our Forgiving God

Nehemiah 9:16-17

 “But they and our fathers acted proudly,

Hardened their necks,

And did not heed Your commandments.

 They refused to obey,

And they were not mindful of Your wonders

That You did among them.

But they hardened their necks,

And in their rebellion

They appointed ha leader

To return to their bondage.

But You are God,

Ready to pardon,

Gracious and merciful,

Slow to anger,

Abundant in kindness,

And did not forsake them.

Of all God's attributes, his mercy and forgiveness are possibly the hardest for me to understand. Perhaps it is because we as humans are so quick to get offended and so slow to forgive. We harbor grudges over the silliest things. We all know what it is like to see close friends become bitter enemies over something so petty and fleeting as money and material possessions. How quickly we forget that the richest blessings are the relationships we have with family and friends. Yes, because we are so trivial with our own forgiveness, we might tend to think that God is as well. 

The above passage is part of a prayer of re-dedication from the book of Nehemiah. It was prayed over the people by their leadership as an act of consecration to Jehovah during Nehemiah's reconsecration of Jerusalem. As part of the prayer, the leaders remind God of his mercy and kindness. They recall the time when their fathers sinned against God and Moses by creating a golden calf in the desert. They remind God that he forgave them because it is in his nature to forgive. They plead for God's forgiveness in their day, confident that God will do no the same for them that he did for their forefathers. Why? Because he is a God of mercy. Kindness is a part of who he is. He can not help but to be kind. It is Who He Is. 

All humanity was originally created in the image of God. Because of sin, we are not in the perfect state we were before the fall. There are, however, still things about our nature that are like God. We are happy at times and sad at others. We become frustrated and we get angry. But of all these things, I believe we are the most like God when we choose to forgive. Forgiveness is not only a virtue, it is a fruit of the Spirit of God. ( See Galatians chapter 5). Yes, we are most like God when we are quick to forgive and let things go. 

No only do we need to forgive others, we must also forgive ourselves. I have heard people repeatedly ask God to forgive things that he had long forgotten. How do I know he has forgotten? Because the prophet Micah said that he would cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. He is so full of love to us. We can not possibly understand just how deep his love and mercy goes. If you are having problems forgiving someone, ask God to help you see that person through his eyes. You will see how much he loves them and know that you must do the same. Are you having problems forgiving yourself? Ask God to help you see yourself as he sees you. You will probably be surprised at what you find out. He doesn't look at us as we see ourselves but he loves us with an unending love. 

God's love is faithful. If you need forgiveness, God has not changed. All you have to do is ask. He is abundant in kindness and will not forsake you. Don't give up on yourself. God hasn't and he never will.

Thankfully,

Sullivan Jones