Several readers have commented, “I really like how Reverend G prays. She just talks to God, like a regular conversation.”
This comment encourages me, but also saddens me.
Have we missed teaching about prayer in our churches and cell groups? Do people not know that prayer really is just talking and listening to God?
Or have we presented God as the High and Mighty One that we can’t approach on a personal basis?
I think we’ve missed something.
God is indeed worthy of our respect and awe. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He created each of us as a unique specimen of human DNA, then he injected us with talents and gifts so that each of His children could find a niche in life and glorify Him.
But He is also Abba Father – Daddy God, the personal Divine who wants us to cling to Him, climb up in His lap and love Him.
We can tell God exactly how we feel about life, because He knows our inmost emotions. He also knows our motives, so we can be honest enough to tell Him that life sometimes gut-punches us and we don’t appreciate what we’re going through. Like Reverend G, we can genuinely state, “I can’t stand it.”
And does God Almighty answer us?
Oh, yes, He does. He is, after all, the Word (John 1:1) – the One who communicates with His children on a personal level.
We can talk honestly to Him and listen to Him whenever and wherever. He’s always available.
Reverend G has no special heart line to God. She’s just like all the rest of us, except she really is a fictional character.
But she teaches us that prayer is just a heart-to-heart connection between us and God, the One who loves us completely and forever.