Our Next Step: Approaching The Big Guy

I hope you’ve enjoyed our last couple of bloggs as we review some good ways you can start your walk with God or understand a good path to follow. First, we addressed the issue of “I’m not good enough for God”, and how that’s not the case for anyone. Second, we took a peek of who God is, and the myth of him being this mean, domineering, killer. The hard part of writing you is I’m trying to shrink down to one page what would seriously take many bloggs to cover. That’s why you will hear me push you to picking up the bible on your own, opening up at the book of Matthew, and begin learning on God because things will make far more sense in the long run.

Today I want to look at the third part of this journey…..Prayer. Now I know for some this subject can be weird and intimidating. For one, some of you out there may not know what prayer is, or how to go about doing so. Some of you reading this may have been trained to recite choreographed prayers, like those with Catholic backgrounds. I mean let’s be honest, the thought of sitting in a room by yourself speaking to someone you can’t see or hear is out of the norm. Some would say it time for the jacket with the little locks and straps on it (just kidding).

Prayer to me is one of the most intimate forms of worship with God. It’s your time to open up your heart to God and let him know what’s going on in your life, what struggles you’re facing, how much you love him, what questions you have, or anything else your heart desires. Prayer has no manual to it; there is no proper formation other then the Amen ending. It’s just you, your words, and God.

In the beginning I was hesitant of this because I just felt weird. As I progressed in my studies of God and I would see Jesus’ relationship with God and how he would pour his hear out to him, sometimes in tears, and one day I decided to take that next step. I sat on my bed and just started talking to God. I told him I enjoy my reading but wasn’t sure how to apply it to my life and if he was up there could he help me out.

As time went on I would begin to pray often to him, asking for further knowledge, advice on life, or sometimes I would just plain out vent about life and its hardships. The truth is this is your journey, this is you relationship with God. You take your time, but I promise you when you open your heart up to God and begin to let him into your intimate thoughts and hardships, joys and pains, you will begin to feel his presence in your life. God is an intimate God and acts like a real father. Fathers love when their children come to them and let them into their lives, and seek their advice. I encourage you to buy a small notebook and begin to create a prayer journal. Write down your conversations with God, and once a month go back and look over it. After a while you will begin to see these prayers come true, and that’s where your relationship with God becomes real.

The two most important parts of this journey are learning about God through his word, and opening your heart up to him in prayer. Everything else evolves around these two. God doesn’t care about anything else in this world except his relationship with you. Going to church, participating in ministries, attending bible studies, preaching his word, helping the sick, feeding the needy, paying tithes, all of this is there to help compliment your walk with God and help you grow in spiritual maturity.

Everyone’s different and everyone’s journey works differently. Some people will pick up a bible, begin to pray for forgiveness, jump right into church, and have everything going for them like it’s nothing. For others like me it’s a slow, long journey with many obstacles and traps along the way. I had to do a lot of spiritual house cleaning. I had a lot of bumps in the road when it came to choices, belief systems, and so much more before I even became comfortable with the notion of God in my life. I’m still not where I would like to be in my walk with God.

One thing I can say is prayer has helped me in ways you have to experience on your own. The best part about prayer is God’s ear is open 24/7, 365 days of the year. I encourage you tonight as you are preparing for bed, approach God and let him know where you are in life and what you are seeking from him. Let him know the questions in your life and why you’ve been so hesitant in coming to him. Remember God knows what’s already in your heart whether you make it vocal or not so don’t censure your prayers, let it out.

I appreciate you taking the time to read this blog and next week we will look at the future obstacles you face as you grow in your walk with God. We will look at why walking with God is so hard in our day. God Bless.