How do you imagine God to be when you pray? Is He far from you or near? Is He assertive or passive? Is He disgusted with you or in love with you? Is He a mean old man, or a kindly grandpa-type, or neither? Is He listening? Does He care for you? Can He help you?
What you believe about Father God is the most important thing contained in your mind. It affects everything about you. Specifically, what you believe about God affects the way you pray.
Unfortunately, there are many wrong perceptions of God that are commonly believed. These misconceptions distort our prayers and, in some cases, prevent people from praying altogether. For too many people, God seems remote, impersonal, and unknowable. Because of that, even Christians suffer from an inability to feel forgiven, nagging doubt, mistrust of God, and even bouts with hyper-perfectionism.
Our prayers are shaped by the way we picture God. A dysfunctional picture of God results in a dysfunctional way of praying and preaching. Jesus revealed this truth;
"What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:11-13 ESV)
Those that had a father who was never around when they needed him or has experienced trauma, abuse, or extreme discipline will have a challenging time preaching about personally pursuing an intimate, loving, and trusting relationship with God as Father. They will see Him as a vengeful judge - spewing out wrath and retribution when sinners do by nature what they do best - sin! That's why we need a Savior! Jesus forgave all sinners – in the past, present, and future - on the Cross. It is up to humanity to accept the free gift of forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus by asking Him to become Lord of their life and repenting of their sin and rejection of Him so that they can be reconciled back to God and experience an intimate relationship with their Creator.
EVER PRESENT
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." (Ps 46:1 NIV)
God is right here, right now. Amid our trials and tribulations, He is there for us. We are never separated from His love and strength. The great Almighty God, the infinite Creator of the universe, takes great delight and unsurpassed joy from our relationship with Him.
"The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." (Zeph 3:17 ESV)
This verse is one of the most poignant passages in the Bible because it depicts the heavenly Father singing over His children and finding joy in their presence, just as any good and loving parent would do.
VERSE BY VERSE
Let’s unpack the verse word by word.
"The Lord" (Heb: Yehovah = the self-existent eternal one)
"Your God" (Heb: Elohiym = the plural supreme God)
"Is in your midst" (Heb: Qereb = the nearest part at the center of it all)
"a mighty one" (Heb: Gibbor = a valiant and mighty warrior)
"who will save" (Heb: Yasha = to set free in safety)
"he will rejoice" (Heb: Sus/Siys = to be jubilant, leap for joy, to find a cause to be exceedingly happy over)
"over you" (Heb: Al = above, over, upon)
"with gladness" (Heb: Simhah = to be filled with joy and happiness; to be exceedingly pleased)
"he will quiet you" (Heb: Charash = to renew; engrave His rest upon you to be silent about your failures/sins)
"by His love" (Heb: Ahabah = a powerful and intimate covenant of faithful and affectionate love)
"he will exult over you" (Heb: Giyl/Al = to emotionally spin around over you rejoicing (i.e., dance!)
"with loud singing" (Heb: Rinnah = joyful crying out by shouting and singing of many songs)
In Scripture, the love of God is often expressed using the Hebrew word 'hesed,' which means a committed love that never fails and lives in the will as much as in the heart. As noted, the word used for “love” in Zephaniah is 'ahaba.' It is also used in the Bible regarding the passionate love of Jacob for Rachel (Gen 29:20), Michal for David (1 Sam 18:28), the warmhearted love of Jacob for Joseph (Gen 37:3), Uzziah's devotion to gardening (2 Chron 26:10), Jonathan's deep friendship with David (1 Sam 18:3), and the devotee's delight in the Lord's law (Ps 119:97). This is also the definition of God's love for His people, a love that delights Him and makes Him contemplate YOU with wordless adoration, a love that cannot be contained but bursts into ecstatic singing (Hos 3:1; Zeph 3:17).
The verse is saying that the self-existent, mighty, and powerful Triune God is in the center of your life. His covenant of faithful and affectionate love has saved you from your failures and sins. It will cause Him to be silent over you in His rest as He jubilantly sings and leaps for rejoices and dances over you with great joy and happiness because He is pleased with you (i.e., your choice to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior).
Can you imagine God singing and dancing around wildly over you as He shouts in rejoicing? Having the joy of God is hard to contain! Jesus is our joyful Redeemer!
"looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb 12:2 ESV).
The Author of joy, is breaking out into singing! The God of history is dancing a jig over you! The pleasure of heaven is expressed over you!
You ravish his heart, for He takes great "delight in you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride" (Isa 62:4-5 NIV).
The Father's passionate rejoicing echoes throughout the heavenlies. Jesus paints a beautiful picture of unbridled joy:
"I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." (Luke 15:7 NIV)
Repentance is the catalyst for experiencing both joy in heaven and freedom on earth.
THE DELIGHT OF GOD
God promises that He "will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul" (Jer 32, 40-41 NIV).
God takes "delight in prospering you" (Deut. 30:9). King David understood the love of the Father and exclaimed to the world that "no good thing does [God] withhold from those who walk uprightly" (Ps 84:11 NIV).
"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." (Ps 23:6 ESV)
The Bible tells us that God works together with us in everything to produce good (See Rom 8:28). When we delight ourselves in Him, He will give us the desires of our heart because they align with His (Ps 37:4).
As His people, we should also sing and shout because of all that He has done for us! He has guaranteed that we need never be afraid because He is our eternal King and Redeemer. Living the Christian life means letting Jesus live His life through us. He has taken away our punishment, defeated our enemies, and come to dwell within us as His new Holy of Holies.
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price." (1 Cor 6:19-20 ESV)
Beloved - please catch this: Jesus - your forgiver, the hope of glory, and the Creator of the universe - lives inside you. He spoke the Universe into existence, yet so many Christians struggle with their day-to-day existence. Since the Creator of the universe lives inside every Born-Again Christian, no one should ever have a hard time dealing with problems and struggle as though God were a million miles away.
Being right with God is based on what God has done outside of you. Jesus chose to dwell in you when you accepted Him. Isn't that wonderful! He came to live in you. We teach our little ones that Jesus lives in their heart, so it shouldn't be hard for an adult Believer to appropriate this truth as well. He has come to dwell and permanently live in you. You are now His dwelling place, the temple of His Holy Spirit.
God holds us next to His heart just as a loving mother holds their baby and quiets them with their love - and even sings to them! This image shows that God is not some distant, nebulous force somewhere out there, but a God who assures forgiven sinners that He loves, and is with them, so they have nothing to fear – ever!
The Triune God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a "singing" God (Zeph 3:17). God, the Son, Jesus, sang at the close of the Passover Feast and then went to the Garden to pray (Matt 26:30). Jesus also sang after His triumphant resurrection from the dead (Ps 22:22; Heb 2:12). God, the Holy Spirit, sings today through the hearts and lips of every Born-Again Christian who praises God in the Spirit (Eph 5:18-21).
THE FULLNESS OF GOD
The Bible admonishes us to live our lives "overflowing with thanksgiving," and in doing so, we will grow "strong and vigorous in the truth" (2 Cor 9:12 NIV). He warns us to make sure that no one is led astray "with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world" rather than on Jesus (Col 2:8 NIV). Within Jesus, all "the fullness of God lives in a human body" (Col 1:19 NIV). As a Born-Again Christian, we have been made complete in Him "who is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe" (Col 2:2-10 NLT).
This "completeness" is conditional to a certain degree in how we appropriate it. God has given us all of His fullness at the moment of salvation. However, it is up to us to stay constantly connected to Him in every condition and circumstance in which we might find ourselves so that we will experience His fullness daily.
The Lord God is in the midst of you. He will rejoice over you with great joy - even "as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride" (Isa 62:5 KJV); so will the Lord "rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in His people" (Isa 65:19 NIV).
God will rest in His love for YOU, content with it as His supreme delight because YOU chose Jesus to be your Lord and Savior (Luke 15:7,10). He will no longer hold YOU eternally accountable for your sins because of the sacrifice Jesus made (Ps 32:2; Ex 33:16; Eph 5:2; Heb 10:12).
When we focus on God's endless love, power, and deliverance, we can experience hope in times of difficulty. Jesus is our King (Zeph 3:15), our Savior (v 3:16-17), and our Beloved (v 3:17)! We are eternally held tightly in the hands of a singing and dancing God!
