In the bulletin message of July 1st, which was titled, “The Treasure – LIFE WITH GOD”, there was an excerpt from the book, With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God by Syke Jethani. The topic of the article about was the five ways Christians relate to God, four of which can be considered not spiritually healthy and will impede how a Christian’s relates to God and their life or relationship with God.
• “LIFE FROM GOD uses him like a divine vending machine who exists to supply our needs and desires.
• LIFE OVER GOD uses him as the source of principles or laws and implements them to control and or influence a particular situation.
• LIFE UNDER GOD tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity through strict adherence to rituals and absolute moral codes.
• LIFE FOR GOD uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose. It puts God’s mission ahead of God himself.”
Even though each of these four positions of how Christians can relate to God have some Biblical basis, all four “LIFE UNDER, OVER, FROM, and FOR GOD seek to use God to achieve some other goal. God is seen as a means to an end”. The result of relating to God in any of these four ways will also affect why and how we pray.
The fifth position, a LIFE WITH GOD is the most Biblical and spiritually beneficial way a Christian can relate to God. This was explained in depth in the bulletin message of July 1st. A LIFE WITH GOD is different than the other four, “because its goal is not to use God, its goal is God. He ceases to be a device we employ or a commodity we consume. Instead God himself becomes the focus of our desire.”
As we relate to God in this way our prayers for others and ourselves also in private or in public, will have a different and noticeable characteristic, they will be relational and personal, acknowledging who God is based on what His word says who He is. They will also be from our heart centered on how we have personally experienced Him in our lives-LIFE WITH GOD. In addition, when we pray for others and ourselves we will seek to get more of God in our lives and in the lives of others rather than getting more from God. Larry Crabb explains it this way. “If we don’t pray relationally (to know God, to move toward union with God so that we increasingly experience His life in us and pour His life out of us into others) before we start asking for things, we’ll become narcissists (excessive self-centeredness) disguised as Jesus’ followers, and we won’t realize what we’ve become.”
The Apostle Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian Church also reflects a LIFE WITH GOD understanding of how Christians should relate to God. 6 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, (1) may give you the Spirit of wisdom (2) and revelation, (why) so that you may know him better. Ephesians 1:16-17, NIV. When was the last time you have prayed for yourself or others “so that you may know him better”?
We can be sure that the people of the Ephesian Church had many different kinds of personal needs. Moreover, as a church that was situated in a city that was not friendly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (please read Acts 19:23-41), they certainly had many difficult challenges as a congregation existing in that city.
Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian congregation was not for protection, physical health, political favor or material blessing but it was simply that they “may know him better”. Why? When the eyes of our hearts are on God and not just on ourselves and or on our situation, then our hearts will be in a position to seek to know His will and for His will to be accomplished, as a result our prayers will not be just about what we want Him to do for us.
Colossians 1:9 NIV
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
In verses, eighteen and nineteen Paul gives the Ephesian congregation an important point about where their eyes should be and what they should be recognizing, all of which reflects a LIFE WITH GOD. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened (why) in order that you may know the (1) hope to which he has called you, (2) the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 (3) and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
In 3:16-19 of the same letter, Paul continues to tell this congregation, which is stated in the way he prays for them, how he wants their LIFE WITH GOD to be and how this is personally experienced. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches (1) he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, (why) 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. (2) And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, (why) 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 ( why) and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — (result) that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV.
The question we must ask ourselves, is how often are we praying for others and ourselves to have a LIFE WITH GOD in the way that Paul prays for the Ephesian congregation?
Pastor John
