"My eyes have seen...the LORD..."

Last week our church had a prayer conference over the span of several days, with speaker Gerhard Du Toit (http://www.revivalfellowship.com/team/GduToit.html). Since then I have had several conversations with my children about prayer, our relationships with God, etc...

It seems that the general consensus among us is that we come under a heavy burden that says things like: "I can't pray like that...that long..." or "I don't have it in me...I must not have what it takes to have a relationship with God like that...and so it must be for a special few..."

I have those same tendencies myself...and then want to feel guilty or sad that I don't seem to be able to be as "spiritual" as I should... Ahhhh, there's one of those "shoulds"...Hmmmmm.

In the past year, the LORD began to lead me down a new path of understanding... I began spending time focusing on praying scriptures that tell of God...WHO He is, His marvelous works, the splendor of His majesty, and so on. What I noticed recently about this is that focusing myself on God and His HUGEness takes my eyes off myself and all my problems, etc. It resets my perspective...

It also began to sink in to me that the same God whom the wind and waves obey is the same God who loves me with an everlasting love; the same God who loves me unconditionally and completely; He is the One who knows my frame and is mindful that I am dust...yet rejoices over me with shouts of joy!

One of the Beth Moore "Praying God's Word" prayer cards I was looking at this morning says this:

"My Father, You are my LORD, my Holy One, my Creator, my King. You are the One who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters. (Isaiah 43:15-16)

Oh, my prayer for us is that we would stop focusing on how well or not well WE are doing the Christian life and instead focus on our great and awesome and mighty God who created heaven and earth and who gives life and breath and all things to us! I think then, hopefully, we will respond as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:5 and fall to our faces with a true view of who we are and who God is:

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

I believe that as we begin to see our God for who He really is, all those aspects of the Christian life that we keep striving for will become a natural response in our lives of worship to our awesome God. When we see God as He is, I don't think we can help but to respond in worship to Him!

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. (Romans 12:1)

Praise the LORD! Ask Him to give you a glimpse of who He really is! I think it will change you - HE will change you!

God bless you with Himself today - He IS your very great reward!

MR