Textual Tuesday

God must be trying to teach me something. Today's scripture kind of continues the thought from last week...

It all started when I found my new favorite website: www.hebrew4christians.com
Here is a short excerpt from a section on Blessings:

"Jews normally do not say "grace" before meals (as do many Christians) but rather after they have eaten. They do not "bless" the food either, but rather acknowledge that God is the One who provides for their sustenance."

This prayer is called Birkat Hamazon.

The reasoning behind this "praying after meals" makes alot of sense. Listen to the words of Dueteronomy 8...

"10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

Sometimes truth needs to smack you right between the eyes for you to notice.
It's so easy to pray for God to fill my stomach...but then I don't praise him when I am full.
It's easy to ask God for help in difficult times...but it's also easy to forget to thank Him when He answers.
Last week I posted about Jesus praying after huge events and helping lots of people. I think God wants us to pray after small things (like eating meals) too.
Do not forget the LORD your God. Praise Him for all He has done.

Dependent on God: Part 2

So, are we dependent on God? Do we need to pray? Or are we self-sufficient to the point where we no longer need Him?
Let me try to outline two answers that I've been contemplating.
The first answer is somewhat simplistic: YES, I am dependent on God! On the surface, it seems that I don't need God, and I can do things myself. And yet, when you think about it...

• Instead of asking God for a raise, I could just work harder. But God gave me the smarts to do my job, and He invented jobs!
• Instead of asking God to heal my child, I could just call the doctor. But who created that doctor?
• Instead of praying for rain, I could dig an irrigation canal. But God created the river or lake that I'm tapping into.

We don't think we need God, and yet EVERY breath is a gift from Him! Every muscle movement, gravity, the way light enters our retinas, heart rate, sense of balance, the way our fingers can manipulate tiny or large objects...how long could this list go on?

As my friend Jim often prays, "God, I can't take ONE STEP without You."

Now, my second answer is a little more difficult to grasp. I am still dealing with it myself.

"Asking" prayers are the prayers of an immature relationship with God. Don't get me wrong, I think God WANTS us to feel free to ask Him for things or help. But if this is all we pray for, something doesn't quite seem right.

When we are children, our conversations with our parents are "asking" conversations. My 3-year old and I don't have deep conversations about the world yet (even though he is incredibly intelligent!) Most of the time, he is asking for juice, or a sucker, or a toy, or to have a book read to him, or for a game...you get the idea.

As we grow older, we are able to speak with our parents about more subjects. We are learning more about our world and ourselves. We can communicate better. We start to become self-sufficient. Sometimes we even think we don't need our parents. (Sound familiar yet?)

When we get still older, our relationship with our parents changes. We become more interested in their lives. We call them more often. We check in on them, just to see how they are doing. We mention that we love them more.

And why this change? Because, I believe, as we grow older we realize the world does not revolve around us. We think less of ourselves (hopefully) and think more of others. We give up our ideas of wealth and popularity and greatness and being god and start to see how truly small we are in a great big world.

While I have an adult relationship with my parents, I am still a child in my relationship to God. Most of my prayers default to "asking" prayers. The next step, I'm told, is "thanking" prayers, or recognizing God for who He is. And even further down the prayer road is the prayer where all you want is to spend time with your Heavenly Father.

In my previous blog, I listed the Lord's Prayer. In it, Jesus only asks for one (physical) thing: His daily bread. Everything else is a recognition of who God is.

Read Paul's prayers. Very rarely does he pray for physical things.

• I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints... (Eph. 1:17-18)
• For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:14-19)
• Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel (Eph. 6:19)
• I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philip. 1:3-6)

I may never be a spiritual giant, and I think God is OK with that. But I aspire to have a more mature relationship with Him...one where I talk to Him more often, tell Him what's happening in my life, listen to Him, and just enjoy being with Him. And even though I am self-sufficient in many ways, I aspire to reach the point where I realize that every minute of my life is due to God's amazing grace.

Roadblock

It's interesting and confusing when you teach others, but hit a roadblock along the way.

Tonight, I was encouraging a new 9-year old Christian the importance of prayer. I dug up one of those old worksheets that has several scriptures about prayer and then has Yes or No written out to the side for the student.

Of course, we studied Matthew 6, one of Jesus' prominent teachings on prayer. I was doing fine until I came to this passage:

"7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

Here's the struggle:

On the one hand, I have heard (and probably taught) that you should be able to tell God ANYTHING! That the conversation should be open and honest, and that you should be able to tell God everything about your life, even the smallest of details (like David in the Psalms!)

And then, Jesus says, "Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

This makes it sound like I should NOT share the smallest details of my life. It makes it sound like God already knows, and therefore does not need me telling Him about my life.

This is both comforting and frustrating. Comforting because God already sees what is going on in my life, and He knows what I need. I don't have to tell Him, or make requests all the time because He knows. He is a good Father who knows me inside and out, and wants to take care of my needs.
But, it's frustrating because, as a human, I badly WANT to have someone with whom I can share the details of my life!

I need to study this passage more. Any insights?

Why do we talk to each other this way?

On Sunday nights, we are having a class for teens and parents about comunication. This week, one of the main points is going to be about how parents and teens speak to each other...

After a while, it can be a real temptation to stop speaking to one another. Or, you speak to each other only when you need something! Have you heard these comments in YOUR house...?

"Hey, you need to get in there and clean up that room."

"Hey Dad, can I have twenty bucks? I'm going out with friends."

"I need you to pick up your little sister...I'm going to be at work longer that I thought."

"Mom, can I borrow the car tomorrow?"

Unfortunately, our conversations sometimes sink to ASKING or DEMANDING. Parents only speak to demand something from their kids, or kids only speak to ask something of their parents. What a sad situation...and yet I fall into this trap sometimes too (with my wife!)

Then I started thinking, "Isn't that the way we talk to God, too?"

It's sad, really. Many times, I feel like I just talk to God to ask something of Him, like he's the parent and I'm the teenager. I get so self-centered that I just think of what I want, and don't realize that maybe God just wants to hear about my day! Maybe all He wants is for me to talk to Him, to pour out my heart and tell Him how I'm feeling!

I want to be like Abraham who, the Bible tells us, spoke to God like he spoke to his friends. Or, there's Enoch, who apparently had such good talks with God, that God decided to just take him to heaven and not wait for him to die!

If you'll excuse me, there's someone I need to just talk to. Not demand, not ask for something...just talk. I need to talk to my Father...