Meeting With Your Creator

on Aug 25, 2011

Prayer changes you more than you know

Part II

During the darkest hour of Job’s life, he demanded an answer from God concerning his plight. He pleaded for the Lord to vindicate him. Throughout the majority of the book, there was no response.

When God finally revealed himself to Job, He did not give Job what he had asked for, nor did He answer any of the challenges Job had uttered. God, instead, exposed Job to His character and personhood. The concerns and arguments that had plagued Job’s mind faded away: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted,” Job said. “Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” (Job 42:2-3)

Scripture says, “Man shall not see [God] and live.” (Exodus 33:20) Essentially, you, in your fallen state, cannot look upon God and survive the encounter. How then can you walk away unscathed from the personally close encounter that is prayer?

When standing in the presence of such a holy God, Job saw his own righteousness in comparison and cried, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6) Isaiah echoed Job when he was in the presence of the Lord, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6:5)

It’s easy to utilize prayer as a chance to tell God what you want, like placing an order at a restaurant. If the order isn’t fulfilled exactly the way you request, frustration follows. You either want to send the order back or have a few words with the waiter and chef.

Prayer, though, is nothing like a restaurant. It is rather a gift that God has given you to come in to His presence. As your Heavenly Father, He loves you. He so deeply wants to hear your cares and hurts (I Peter 5:7) and longs to bless you and fight on your behalf (II Chronicles 16:9). Yet your prayers do not surprise the Lord, nor do they inform Him of something of which He is unaware. Prayer is not for God’s benefit. It is for yours. Prayer changes your will, heart and mind to submit to and worship Him.

On the night that Jacob wrestled with the Lord, he begged God to bless him for he feared that his death would come upon meeting Esau, whom he had betrayed. He pleaded with God to spare his life. Yet the Lord’s plan never included Jacob’s death by Esau’s hands. In fact, the Lord had already been at work in Esau. The lack of faith in Jacob brought him, in desperation, before his Creator, and God used that to powerfully change him. God’s plan and promises to Jacob didn’t change through this encounter. Jacob changed. A dislocated hip would be the painful physical reminder of the night he met the Lord and his name became Israel. With great awareness of the holiness and grace of God, he declared, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” (Genesis 32:30)

Worship begins with prayer!

In part one, it was discussed how prayer should be the natural progression of worship. But just as worship leads to prayer, prayer brings you to worship! Meeting God face to face will always be a life-changing experience. While you may begin with all sorts of wants and desires, just as Jesus asked God to take the cup from Him, and just as Job asked for an explanation from the Lord, it should always lead to the revelation of who God is.

When meeting with God, your requests will fade and the Lord will become more evident. You may not get the answer that you were searching for. But, like Job, the personhood of Christ will be sufficient…more than you ever knew you wanted.

The key to worship is prayer – and the key to prayer is worship. If this sounds confusing and a little hard to follow, then simply remember this: