When was the last time you took a decent amount of time to think about how great God is before speaking to Him through prayer? I was challenged by this question today as I began reading the book “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. He begins the first chapter of this book with these words:
“What if I said, ‘Stop praying?’ What if I told you to stop talking at God for a while, but instead to take a long, hard look at Him before you speak another word? Solomon warned us not to rush into God’s presence with words. That’s what fools do. And often, that’s what we do… The wise man comes to God without saying a word and stands in awe of Him.”
I must admit that I am often too quick to begin talking to God through prayer. I sometimes rattle off what can be described as “routine prayers” and may even be guilty of talking at God before fully comprehending who He truly is.
In this chapter Francis Chan goes into numerous examples of why God is great but what concerned me, was that while I was reading through all these truths, nothing was really stirred up within me as I have been in a bit of a spiritually dry place recently. The suggestion in this chapter is if you haven’t been moved by the examples of God’s greatness you should then read through the descriptions of God’s throne room in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4. This is what I did and wow… God is truly great.
My favorite part of Revelation 4 are these verses:
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the one seated on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before the one seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne and say,
11 Our Lord and God,
you are worthy to receive
glory and honour and power,
because you have created all things,
and by your will
they exist and were created.
This is how glorious our God is – the God that we pray to – He is the One who has created all things and by whose will everything exists. I think it is so helpful to dwell on who God is in worship before starting or continuing in conversation with Him. We should be in awe of our God because He is truly amazing. Just reading these descriptions of His throne room today have helped me feel a little better spiritually and I hope that if you read them you will not be able to respond in anything but worship to our God who deserves it.
Much love,
Luke
