God’s idea of
prayer is not a ritual, but loving and lively communication between the best of
friends.
But sad to say, most people think they
can’t talk to God like that. Some think they’re not religious enough, not
righteous enough, or not spiritual enough. Some think He’s too big-too far
above them. Some think He’s too busy to be concerned about them and their
problems, which they think must seem awfully petty to Him. Some feel unworthy,
not good enough. Some feel guilty or ashamed about things they’ve done. Some
are even afraid of Him. If only they understood how differently God sees it!
God wants to have a personal relationship
with each of us, and He wants it to be the deepest, most meaningful, most
fulfilling and rewarding, most natural part of our lives. Now that’s not to say
He wants to take away from the other relationships and activities that we enjoy
and consider important. To the contrary-He wants to be a part of all that. He wants to make our
day-to-day living easier, He wants to give the things we experience greater
meaning, and He wants to enjoy them with us. In a word, He wants to make our
lives better. He wants to
add a wonderful new dimension to all that we do-the dimension of His loving
presence.
How do we establish such a relationship,
especially when we feel small and unspiritual and unworthy? How do we make that
connection? Simple: through His Son, Jesus!
None of us can really grasp how great and
wonderful God our Father is, because He and His Spirit are greater than the
whole universe. He’s so beyond our comprehension that He had to send us Someone
who could show us His love, Someone we could experience, Someone who could
bring God down to the level of our limited human understanding. So He sent His
Son, Jesus.
Jesus lived for thirty-three years on
Earth in human form and experienced the joy and sorrows that we as humans
experience.1 Jesus has been here,
so He can understand us and be the link between us and God.2
We can get personal with Jesus. He even
told us to ask Him into our hearts: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If
anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with
him, and he with Me.”3 He’s the One we can have direct, personal contact
with. He is the One we can approach God through.
If you have prayed to receive Jesus as
your Savior, you already have that connection. If not, you can make it right
now by sincerely praying a simple prayer like the following:
Dear Jesus, I believe You are the Son of
God and that You died for me. I need Your love to cleanse me from my mistakes
and wrongdoing. I now open the door of my heart and ask You to please come into
my life and give me Your free gift of eternal life. Amen.
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1999, Aurora Production AG, Switzerland.