Weekly Recap
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” When we read the words of David in Psalm 8:3-4, we are reading a prayer of someone who rightly knows who God is. These words reveal why David was called a man after God’s own heart. He didn’t just know information about God; he knew who God truly was. He knew the God who cares about us and for us and gave us this incredible gift we call prayer. Last week we learned that prayer begins and ends with God and that prayer is essential. To be truly human is to be in communion with God. This week, Pastor Chris gave us another aspect of prayer - it is an encounter with God.
When we pray, we are not only talking with God but we are literally having an encounter with the God of the universe. An encounter with God is not just knowing about God, but knowing God, and when we know God, everything changes. Encountering God produces change. In Isaiah 6:8, Isaiah was radically transformed after his encounter with the Lord. We see him respond with reverence, awe, and conviction. He saw God high and lifted up, seated on the throne. When he gets a proper view of who God is, he gets a proper view of who he is. He says, “Woe is me - I am ruined”, falling on his face in humility, realizing his unworthiness. Nobody walks away from an encounter with God thinking how awesome he or she is. Instead, it should convict us and cause us to bow to him in reverence in every area of our lives.
Encountering God also leads to commissioning and empowerment. After Isaiah prostrated himself in humility, God took away and atoned for his guilt. Then he sent him out, cleansed and forgiven, ready to do God’s will. Jesus did the same thing with his disciples. When God calls us to do his work in the world,he gives us everything we need to do it and this leads to a deeper desire for God. The Psalmist tells us to taste and see that the Lord is good and then we will want more. Only God can satisfy our souls and make us want more. Pastor Chris asked us to think of when the last time was that all we wanted was to just be in the presence of the Lord. The more we are with him, the more we will want him - it creates an appetite in us. If we don’t feel this closeness and desire yet, we need to keep being with God, pursuing him, reading and meditating on his Word and things will change over time. A new identity is ours when we encounter God. We become a new creation and are given a new identity just like Jacob became Israel and Saul became Paul. Nobody is so far from God that he or she can’t be transformed in an instant with an encounter with God.
Encountering God in prayer is only possible through Jesus. It is only through a relationship with Jesus that we can have access to God - that is the message of the Bible. In John 14:6-7, Jesus says that he is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one can come to the Father except through him. This was recorded by John, a disciple and eyewitness. Romans 10:13 tells us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This calling on the name of the Lord is the first prayer that God receives. We must take this first step and then we can learn how to commune with him through his gift of prayer.