This past week my wife got me an amazing little device… you’ve probably heard of it… it’s called
an iPhone. It’s remarkable. You can connect to anything… anywhere. There’s one button for email
… another text… (one button connection with the thousand contacts I have on my phone.. … some
I actually know)… another web (where there are now 165 million websites… and countless web
pages)… another YouTube video (note: Americans viewed more than 11.4 billion videos for a total
duration of 558 million hours during the month of July 2008… 1.2 million self published videos in
2007 alone)… another for weather anywhere… another maps (satellite zoom onto any location on
the earth). It’s even a phone.
It can send me everywhere …. everywhere out there… but potentially at the cost of anything
inwardly. (Kind of ironic that it’s called the “I” phone… because it connects me to everything
but myself.) Nothing that really connects me to myself… and no button for God.
I think it can reflect our own challenge of seeking to connect with God. Our attention is sent
outward… and has a hard time being present.
Continuing series… ‘Becoming friends with God’… focused on developing intimacy… walking in
companionship-like relationship.
As much as we naturally desire to engage God’s presence… I wonder if we are present.
It’s common to ask the question ‘Where is God?’…. but interesting that the first question in the
story (Bible) is that of God asking the first human lives… ‘Where are you?’
It may be helpful to think a little bit about the nature of feelings.
One of the things that some of us may struggle with is ‘feeling’ close to God.
It’s such a natural desire. However, I think we need to stop and reflect on that desire… that
expectation a bit.
What role do feelings play in life?
As we all know… they are a complicated part of our human experience.
I want to take A Closer Look at Feelings…
I. Allowing Feelings to Direct Rather Than Distract
Feelings regarding closeness are a subjective reflection of our complex internal state.
If I ask whether you “FEEL” close to a spouse… friend… or anyone… the answer as to what you
feel reflects many things that are at work inside you… more than simply whether the other person is
close:
• When we feel discouraged or disappointed… we can become detached. (The very word
‘discouragement’ reflects the loss of courage… even courage to engage God.)
• When we feel guilt and shame … we can become avoidant.
• When we feel anxious … we can become ‘flooded’ with internal thoughts and lose the ability to
center our attention on anything or anyone.
The point is that feelings do NOT reflect objective closeness… connection.
Feelings reflect many things that interact with our connection to another, but are not the
connection itself.
• Like the buttons on my iPhone… they can send me many places… except where I am.
This may help us to understand why Jesus never simply promised that we can FEEL close to God…
but rather that we can BE close to God.
The issue isn’t whether we place too much or too little value on feelings, but how we
understand their role in being connected to others… including God.
So to our lives, flooded with so much inside… it shouldn’t surprise us to read …
Psalms 46:10 (NIV)
"Be still, and know that I am God..”
This isn’t about simply freezing our body… but focusing our inner heart.
Becoming still reflects focusing on a presence greater than what is controlling our inner
attention.
We are responding to so many things…
Like a parent who needs to get their children’s attention.
And the truth is that most of us have ADD and … and often do little to gain focus.
To this God says… “Be still… and know that I am God.”
The Hebrew word that is translated still actually has the sense of ‘loosening’… in this sense,
loosen yourself from what you have become so attached to.
= ‘Still your many thoughts… center your focus…you’ve got too many windows open … using up
all the RAM I’ve given you.’
How do we still them? What are we suppose to do with all the thoughts that run inside of us?
Should I just try to pretend they are not there? ... just try to ignore them?... just deny them?
That will likely prove futile… even further our sense of disconnect us.
Rather God wants us to bring them TO him.
1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
Connection with God comes with allowing Feelings to Direct Rather Than Distract
Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG)
“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into
prayers, letting God know your concerns. 7 Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness,
everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens
when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”
Many of us may tend to hear just the first part of Paul’s point… ‘don’t worry’… ‘don’t be
anxious’… but it’s about transforming what stirs us inside.
> Don’t deny your feelings… direct them.
Psalms 139:23-24 (NIV)
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is
any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Do you want to be led in the way of everlasting? Then start by opening up with what’s going on
INSIDE of you. It’s not just about labeling some stuff bad and burying it… it’s about bringing it.
“Offensive’ stuff – that which is not fitting of reflecting the image of God that is in us.
“Anxious thoughts” – anything that’s controlling my attention… that I’m giving more credence
and control to than God.
God knows that there are a lot of other gods we give ourselves to. As sincere as we may be in
praying to Him… we are controlled by whatever we become anxious about…. By problems, people,
possessions.
Allowing our feelings to be directed to God… resolved with God… this is what we see embodied in
Christ. In the Garden of Gethsemane… where Jesus resolves his feelings regarding the cross… after
pouring out his heart to his father in heaven.
Not something that he simply developed in the moment. He had been doing so all along.
So his disciples… how do we get started.
Before concluding our time… lets consider some practical principles for coming to God… for
approaching prayer.
II. Getting Started – Principles for Engaging God
The disciple recognized the special relationship that Jesus enjoyed with God… whom he
related to as father. They saw the role that prayer held.. and asked him… “Lord… teach us to
pray.”
So Jesus begins…
Matthew 6:5-8
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth; they have
received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray
to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will
reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think
they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows
what you need before you ask him”.
What can we learn to help us in connecting with God?
1. Pray SECRETLY
“…go into your room and close the door”
Jesus wasn’t challenging a place for public prayer per se, but what can become of it.
The formality of the Jewish religion included that of praying while standing with hands stretched
out, palms opened and heads bowed, 3X/day, at 9 a.m., Noon and 3 p.m., WHEREVER ONE WAS.
It was easy for a man to be sure that they would find themselves at a busy part of the marketplace or
the top step of the synagogue and there, offer lengthy and demonstrative prayers as a sign of piety.
Even though our less formal manner affords us less opportunity, we all know that we can begin to
care more about appealing to others than God.
Jesus makes clear the pivotal option—appealing to others or appealing to God. His point is
simple…
If what you want is the honor of other people… you can have it… but that will be your
‘reward in full’… that’s all you get.
Drop the outward religion. Go for the real thing… for relationship.
We’re called to prayer, to share in praise and intercession, …BUT IF YOU WANT TO LEARN
HOW TO PRAY, FIRST SHUT THE DOOR BEHIND YOU—FIND A SECRET PLACE,
PRIVATE AND PERSONAL WHERE YOU CAN DEVELOP YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH
THE FATHER.
He speaks of cultivating a private and personal relationship.
• There’s a POWER IN PRIVACY
The nature of a relationship is defined by how it’s set apart. Friends will start meeting for coffee…
or couples at a place that becomes their ‘special place.’ When we begin to spend time set apart from
others it’s creating something special.
Jesus said that we should make similar appointments with our Father in Heaven; create a special
place and meet there regularly.
As Andrew Murray explains, “God needs time with us to exercise the full influence of his
presence on us.”
Setting apart time is simply foundational to any relationship. The simple truth that many of us
discover, is that no set time soon diminishes to no time at all.
• There is also a PRIORITY OF PRIVACY.
Time and time again, the disciples note Jesus slipping away... before it was light, when the crowds
around him had wearied His soul. I wonder if at times they felt left out? Perhaps… but it was the
source from which Jesus lived and ministered… the source of strength out of which he served and
ministered to them.
They too would learn the value and priority of the private world…so should we.
Praying as friends, as couples, should be an EXTENSION of our PERSONAL TIME, NEVER A
SUBSTITUTE.
We should not only learn to pray together, but encourage and even protect the special times others
have set apart for their relationship with God.
And then of course, there’s
• The PRACTICALITY OF PRIVACY.
Distractions seem to have a special liking for attempts to talk to God.
Any noise seems to draw my focus…suddenly we hear not only the telephone… but the washing
machine, the neighbor’s music. Jesus knows the value of finding a quiet place.
2. PRAY SIMPLY AND SINCERELY
‘Don’t pile up meaningless phrase’s, thinking length of words will help, like “the pagan”…
prophets of Baal were confronted by the prophets of the true God…
Over time the Jewish people developed rich and beautiful prayers that were to be spoken daily:
Most central was what is called the “Shema” — consists of 3 scriptures… and the
Shemoneh’esreh—which means 18 and consist of 18 prayers. For some, this daily expression
became a means to impress God, the meaning becoming secondary.
We too can start to string together common phrases and call it prayer.
God only wants to hear his sons’ and daughters’ hearts!
Psalms 62:8 “Pour out your hearts to him.”
Nothing is said about how long or refined.
God knows our hearts better than we do; we can trust he’ll receive our prayers with greater
understanding than we’ll ever know.
As C.S. Lewis wrote:
“Take not, Oh Lord, our literal sense,
Lord in thy great unbroken speech,
Our limping metaphor translate.”
It’s our hearts and wills, not our words, that are ultimately before God.
“We must lay before Him what is in us… not what ought to be in us.”
-C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, Ch 4, p 22
3. PRAY SECURELY
“For”, as Jesus says, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”
As Myron Augsburger expressed so well…
“Prayer moves the hand of God by giving Him the freedom to do in our lives what He has
been wanting to do.” - Myron Augsburger
We may feel that if He knows our hearts anyways, what difference does it make?
Parents know something of what difference it makes:
If your child is anxious, and you know it, does it make a great difference if they talk to you about it?
If your child lies and you know it, what difference does it make if they come and tell you?
If your child is trying to seek direction/guidance…which you already know they need… what
difference does it make when they come to you and ask?
> It changes everything
So it is that a parent may be waiting for that meeting.
"The Little Prince" is one of those rare literary gems, simple enough for children, yet
profound enough to keep adults thinking all their lives. The little prince comes to earth from
another planet, and he needs a lot of help adjusting to our ways. One of the earthly beings who
befriends him is the fox. As the fox begins to tell him things and show him things. A deep
friendship develops. At one point in the story they are trying to agree on a time for their next
meeting. It becomes very important to the fox to know the exact time of the proposed rendezvous.
They finally agree to meet at four o’clock. But the little prince cannot understand why the fox must
know the exact time. "Oh, says the fox, "if you will come at four o’clock, then I will begin to be
happy at three."
> God’s been waiting for you to meet.
PRAYER
