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How often do we say that something is “in God’s hands" and
want to believe it?
For me, one of the most difficult aspects of prayer is that
it demands so much faith and trust in God.
Do we really believe that He is listening to us? Isn’t it
easier to do things ourselves than to put it in His hands? Sometimes, it seems
hard enough just to stop working or worrying long enough to spend time with God
in prayer, let alone having the trust to turn over our lives to Him and let Him
handle our worries.
Our life with God is supposed to be an intimate relationship that works much the same as the
relationships we have with others. If we feel as though we have to do everything ourselves, we find ourselves not
only doing everything alone but
after awhile, are very much alone. Because we lack the trust to ask for help,
eventually, we become isolated and it becomes difficult to talk or listen to
others.
If, however, we work with others and let them share with us,
we grow in an awareness of our essential communion with other people; and
because we have shared responsibilities and play, sorrow and joy, we find it
much easier to communicate verbally and non-verbally as well.
From this very human fact of our experience, we should learn
something about our relationship with God. Because He is the most important
relationship in our lives, we should trust Him and let Him into the practical,
day-to-day side or our lives. We should let God act and not shut Him out. If we do allow Him in, our relationship takes on
all kinds of new dimensions. We have much to talk to Him about because He has
been sharing the whole day with us. Sine He’s been there with us, we can also be silent
together in the day’s failures and/or successes.
In order to reach this stage, however, we have to be able to
put some things in God’s hands and trust Him. For most of us, this is easier
said than done.
The person who can put things in God’s hands and trust Him
grows daily in the knowledge that for him who loves God, all things work
together unto good. Out of the great sorrows and pain of my life come goodness,
beauty and insight I never had before. French novelist, Leon Bloy (1846-1917)
once said that there are places in the human heart which do not yet exist,
and into the heart comes suffering, that they might have existence. Out of such a heart prayer rises naturally as
thanksgiving for the wholeness of everything that is, as a hymn to God who
draws good even out of what was thought as evil.
Most of our own anxieties about communing with God, I
believe, come from what preachers, authors and acquaintances say they
experience. The constant “high" that many share, is usually very different from
the darkness and emptiness we often feel. In truth, God comes to each one of us
in His own way and time and in the manner best suited to each person. He
doesn’t come according to a manual or primer of prayer, but according to our
need and readiness for Him.
Even when faith is low, many of us keep praying because
contrary to what many “pray-ers" proclaim, common sense tells us that God is
more loving and aware of who we are and what we need that those advisers in the
spiritual life who are more like Job’s accusers than wise men of the Spirit.
God loves each and every one of us. If only we could hold to
that above everything else. We long to believe it but others sometimes make us
doubt it because they don’t seem to care. And, of course, what we can see and
hear and touch affects us more that what we believe. It is only when belief
conquers experience that we are truly men and women of faith.
The search for God ends up in the end to be God’s search for
you. You take so many wrong turns just where you might have met Him at some
corner of your life. But in the end, He surprises you by finding you looking
for him in the wrong direction.
God comes your way, no matter how far afield you are. That is the story of God;
He goes out of His way for his children. You are that important; that is the
story of man.
©2008 Judi Lynn Lake. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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