It is easy to take God lightly - in prayer as in anything else.
But our God is awesome and sometimes terrifying.
Jesus touches on this in the words "hallowed be your name" in the model prayer he gave his followers. We believers are to worship him in awe.
John White, Christian author, pastor and psychiatrist, writes that Job learned how great God is in an encounter with the Lord Almighty in the Book of Job in the Bible. It changed him dramatically.
In his book on prayer - Daring to Draw Near - White recounts the story of Job's suffering and his call to God to justify him as an innocent man. The Book of Job tells how God permitted Satan to take Job's wealth and his children while sparing the man's life.
Much of the rest of the Book of Job is taken up with Job's wrestling with why God would allow this. He can't understand why he is suffering and he complains to the Lord. His friends tell him he needs to repent.
Finally, God speaks "out of the storm" in Job 38. He begins with the intimidating words: "Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer me."
He asks: "Were you there when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me if you understand."
God hammers home the point again and again in the following verses. In effect, he is saying that God knows far more than any man or woman can conceive and his reasons are just.
Then, God says: "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him."
"Would you discredit my justice?" God continues. "Would you condemn me to justify yourself?"
Job reacts the way I would - completely overcome.
"My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you," he says. "Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."
White says these words indicate Job had gained a new vision of who God is and of his great power and wisdom.
God does not explain to Job why he suffered. But he does see that Job's view of the Lord has been transformed. And he even leads Job to intervene on behalf of friends and blesses him with family and material goods.
White urges us to contemplate this great God who loves us and yet is so great that outstanding men in the Bible fell before him in terror and awe.
In prayer, the author says, we should tell God that we know he is holy and that there is no one like him.
"Tell him that you owe him your allegiance, your body, your time. Tell him that you recognize that his mercy to you is far more than you ever deserve."
Then, he says, we should ask the Holy Spirit to take us further into a deeper understanding of the overwhelming greatness of God.
But our God is awesome and sometimes terrifying.
Jesus touches on this in the words "hallowed be your name" in the model prayer he gave his followers. We believers are to worship him in awe.
John White, Christian author, pastor and psychiatrist, writes that Job learned how great God is in an encounter with the Lord Almighty in the Book of Job in the Bible. It changed him dramatically.
In his book on prayer - Daring to Draw Near - White recounts the story of Job's suffering and his call to God to justify him as an innocent man. The Book of Job tells how God permitted Satan to take Job's wealth and his children while sparing the man's life.
Much of the rest of the Book of Job is taken up with Job's wrestling with why God would allow this. He can't understand why he is suffering and he complains to the Lord. His friends tell him he needs to repent.
Finally, God speaks "out of the storm" in Job 38. He begins with the intimidating words: "Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer me."
He asks: "Were you there when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me if you understand."
God hammers home the point again and again in the following verses. In effect, he is saying that God knows far more than any man or woman can conceive and his reasons are just.
Then, God says: "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him."
"Would you discredit my justice?" God continues. "Would you condemn me to justify yourself?"
Job reacts the way I would - completely overcome.
"My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you," he says. "Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."
White says these words indicate Job had gained a new vision of who God is and of his great power and wisdom.
God does not explain to Job why he suffered. But he does see that Job's view of the Lord has been transformed. And he even leads Job to intervene on behalf of friends and blesses him with family and material goods.
White urges us to contemplate this great God who loves us and yet is so great that outstanding men in the Bible fell before him in terror and awe.
In prayer, the author says, we should tell God that we know he is holy and that there is no one like him.
"Tell him that you owe him your allegiance, your body, your time. Tell him that you recognize that his mercy to you is far more than you ever deserve."
Then, he says, we should ask the Holy Spirit to take us further into a deeper understanding of the overwhelming greatness of God.
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