what I think I thought…

So I got an e-mail today about last week’s sermon on prayer.  I am sharing with you their e-mail and my response because if one person walked out feeling like this…there may be others.  Anytime you have a question about anything said in a service…please let me know…

Okay.. so I’ve been trying to digest the sermon from Sunday.  And it has left me feeling awful.  I have     struggled all my adult life with the idea that God loves me.  And after your message on Sunday I now feel     convinced that I am nothing more than a nuisance to God.  I bother him with my daily babblings.  Is it true     that he really only wants to hear from me when I need him to do something miraculous?  Otherwise I     should just let things play out as they will and leave Him alone?

My Response

Let me begin by saying…I am so sorry.

As I mentioned Sunday…this is a HUGE topic and there is no way to cover all that needs to be covered on this issue.

I Peter 5: 7 says…”Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  He CARES for YOU!  He desires for you to bring everything to him…all your anxieties…big and small.

My point…which obviously I didn’t make very well…for us to think, dream, and ask BIG!  We can and should pray for the small things but I want us dreaming God size dreams too.  I heard someone say recently that for those of us who are parents…when we pray with our children…the size of our prayers teach our children about the size of our God.  I want my boy to understand we serve a big God by expecting him to answer big prayers.

The thing about bothering God…those were Jesus’ words…but they were told in a parable…Jesus was making a point…not a declaration.  And in both of Jesus’ parables…the “bothering” was a GOOD thing!

The point wasn’t that our prayers bother God.  Eph. 2:12 says this…”In him, and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”  Hebrews 4:16 puts it this way…” Let us then approach the throne of Grace with confidence so that we will receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

On the Day that Jesus died the veil in the temple…a curtain three feet thick…ripped from TOP to BOTTOM.  God opened up the holy of holies to everyone…he invited us into his presence.  He longs to hear from us.  Jesus parables weren’t meant to paint a complete picture of God in prayer…as he said in Luke 18:1…He told them this parable “to show them they should pray and not give up.”

That was the point…Jesus wanted us to learn to pray and not give up…but to pray and keep praying.  That is was the point.  To get you to do it more…not less.  If you walked out wanted to pray less…then I thoroughly failed.
God wants you to pray and keep praying.  To more and more bring your requests to him.  We are going to touch on this a little this week…God desires for us to know and be known intimately.  And that can only happen by us spending more time him not less.

As I said…I am sorry you have been tormented…God adores you and is longing to spend time you.  He sent his son to die to make that happen.

Tonight I am sitting in my recliner watching a show called “Hoarders.”

It is a show chronicling the lives of people who compulsively hoard everything.  There is a woman who is going through a refrigerator that is packed to the brim with rotting food.  Most anyone would look in it…vomit then throw the whole thing out.  But not her.  She is looking in it trying to rationalize reasons to keep 2 year old cheese.

Another man is going through his house that is so full of stuff you can’t even see the floor.  It is so bad he is in danger of being evicted…and along with his wife…having child protective services take away his two kids.  Because he can’t part with the useless stuff…he may end up losing all the stuff.

The phrases I keep hearing is…”Change is hard.”  “I can’t seem to part with this.”  “I don’t know why I am emotional attached to these things?”  “It’s all just too overwhelming.”

I was watching this show thinking how can anyone live like this?  How can anyone hang onto to this stuff?  How can anyone have such an emotional attachment to things that are ruining their lives?

Then it hit me.  Most of us do it all the time.  Maybe not with rotten meat or broken toys…but so many of us are hanging onto to hurts and sins and regrets…and they are ruining us.  We have emotional attachments to lies on the inside of us that we can’t…can’t let go of.  They have become our normal and the thought of living without them is an unknown that is way too scary.

Two things I have learned from this show…

• Removing the symptoms doesn’t mean you’re cured.
• You must let someone help you if you hope to be healed.