Intimacy in Prayer

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil. (Proverbs 8:13)

"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." (Isaiah 1:18)

Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

There was a worship song a few years ago called “You Won’t Relent” that stated bluntly, “I don’t want to talk about You like You’re not in the room.” That really resonated with me because I felt like so many of our church songs were “about God” rather than sung “to God.” Our prayer, like our worship, is intended to be relational and personal. God wants us to know Him and talk with Him often. Saying vague prayers to a vague God does not benefit God or us.

As we pursue this type of intimacy with our Father, there are a couple of important dichotomies that we must balance in order to maintain a healthy prayer life. The first is the supposed “contrast” between God’s love and God’s holiness. Of course, God is not the one divided here. God is perfectly One in both His love and holiness. It is we who sometimes struggle with how to fear God and love God at the same time.

The second battle is between our fallen nature and our redeemed nature. We know that we are made of dust and naturally bent toward sin, yet we also know that we were created in God’s image and that through faith in Jesus we have been adopted into His family.

Some people become overwhelmed at God being the Creator of the Universe and mistakenly think that He is too BIG or distant to approach. But for the most part, it is God’s holiness that exposes the corruption and perversion in our heart and causes us to resist or even fear coming to Him. On the other end of the spectrum, some may see love as God’s only character trait and treat Him way too casually. Minimizing His holiness will cause them to minimize their sin. They may even regard Him as some sort of genie who just exists to grant all their wishes and make their life better.

While His love draws us closer to Him, His holiness may make us feel unworthy to approach Him. Our flesh may be weak, but we must not allow our sins to deceive us into believing that God loves us less. When we fail, sometimes we as Christians allow our guilt, shame, or fear to keep us from coming back to God. The truth is, we should run to Him as fast as we can. The truth is, God always wants us to come back to Him.

Once we have been washed by the blood of the Lamb, we can have confidence that we are now pure and righteous in His eyes when we pray. In faith, we are graciously granted access into His throne room. As we grow in our love for our Father more and more every day, His perfect love casts out our fear of His wrath, and our fear of what others may think of us. As we humbly walk with Him, we have the joy and privilege of praying specific, Biblical, Kingdom-growing, God-glorifying prayers.