Character

Is it hard for you to pray?  Do you ever feel like you keep asking God for the same things over and over?  How about when you worship?  At some point all the songs sound the same.  It’s easy to feel bored with the monotony of religion.  Is this how it’s going to be from now until I die?  How can Heaven be paradise if we’re going to keep doing the same thing forever?


I wonder this all the time.  And all the time I hear about people that don’t go to church because they say it’s boring and fake.  (I think the repetition makes it less meaningful.)  They give up on church, religion and ultimately on God because it’s just not relevant or interesting to them.  Whether or not we’ve given up on church, we are all tempted in the same way.


The problem is that we don’t know God very well.  The Bible has a lot to say about His character, who He is.  It’s so important that we study scripture and reflect on all the specifics of His nature.  As a worship leader, I’m always intentionally asking myself, “how well does worship this week specifically reflect the various qualities of God?”  If we fail to stop learning about God, our faith will easily turn into meaningless religion.  Our worship will be less accurate and authentic because we will forget who we’re worshipping.


You can easily measure this with your prayers.  Are you always asking God for things when you pray, as if His only role is to be your magical genie in the sky who gives you whatever you want?  While it’s true he’s our provider and cares about our needs and desires, remember He’s also our King, Holy Lord, Savior, Leader, Deliverer and Father (just to name a few).  We should remember to pray in thankfulness, to pray worshipfully, for our own hearts to change align with His and for His will to be done on this earth.  We should humble ourselves and pray for our hearts to be in tune with His, to be delivered from sinful desires and temptations, for opportunities to lead others to Christ, and for the Holy Spirit to be at work in our lives.  Prayer isn’t about changing God (He doesn’t change) it’s really about us tuning our hearts into who He is.


The more you meditate on the biblical qualities of who God is, the more you will pray these prayers.  And God will always be faithful to continually mold your life and work your heart to make you more into His image, the image of Christ.  We were originally created in His image and our destiny is to become more and more like Christ.


And here’s the most important fact: God is never boring.  There is no limit to the depth of His glory; no end to His riches, wisdom and righteousness (Romans 11:33).  His love is greater than our understanding.  We could spend every second of our life getting to know Him better and we still would only know Him in part..  I love the analogy of the stars in the sky.  From here on earth they look small and dim but really they are 100x bigger than the earth, burning with immense heat and brilliant light, so bright that we can’t even look close up.  God is the same way – get a little closer to Him today and let it change you.

-Rich