“The Christian on his knees sees more than the philosopher on tiptoe. God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.”
-D.L. Moody
Today we’re looking at barrier #7 of our series.
#7 “I’m not good enough to be in God’s presence right now. Maybe after I clean up a bit…”
Although this seems to be a very easy, cut and dried biblical principle, it’s incredibly difficult for many of us to grasp. The fact is, we’ll never be clean enough (Jer. 17:9)! We’ll never have such a good day in this life, so freed from sin, that God will look at our accomplishments or “lack of sin” and say, “Thanks for making my job easier, Clay. See, that’s why you’re My favorite. NOW I can bless you.” But we think this way sometimes, don’t we? “Look at how good I’m doing today! Now God will see all my hard work of NOT SINNING and be amazed!”
Of course, this sounds silly reading it right here. But that’s what some of us do in our everyday actions. This is why God gives us His grace. Christ’s righteousness frees us from the law of sin and death giving us the ability to come to our Heavenly Father with all of our thanksgiving, confessions, petitions, and daily needs. When we give up this legalistic, perfectionistic trap in our life of faith, we’re able to view our relationship with God differently. Instead of a system of checks and balances, merits and demerits, we experience the intimate, reciprocal, loving Heavenly Father that we know Him to be.
One of the other cool things that happens is rather than trying to “talk our way out” of something with God, or occupying the time we spend with the Lord with pressured verbiage, we don’t mind the silence. In fact, we come to love the silence and the listening part of what God is telling us, rather than us always yammering on about our needs and requests.
Prayer is meant to be a beautiful 2-way conversation with a Heavenly Father who delights to hear our voices. When we come to Him in faith, vulnerable and exposed by our own sin and failure, God embodies His unmerited, amazing grace toward us, letting us know that there is nothing/no sin too big for Him to forgive…He makes us new.
So, don’t buy in to Satan’s lies! Instead, believe that you have been given mercy and grace from the Lord. As you grow deeper in this discipline of prayer, enjoy the time you get to spend with the Father unencumbered by legalism and one-upmanship. Be thankful that you can go to the Father just as you are. Go now…enjoy His presence!
Blessings,
Clay,
Clayton J. Elliott, Kontaktmission USA
Pastoral Ministries and Prayer
clay@GoKMUSA.org (731) 217-1741
Here are two of this month’s prayer requests from KM missionaries in the field.
From the KM mission team in Opovo, Serbia. “The first year of Bible school began this month. Please pray for the school team and the students. Pray that we will support the team and guide the students well. Pray for our outreach and travel. Pray for our many daily contacts in Opovo—that we give JESUS the freedom to work through us! Please pray we learn the language well and quickly. We are thankful for our language instructor. Please pray for her and her family.”
From the KM mission team in Rama Israel. “Please pray for our young people. We prayed for a long time to get a youth leader and we thank God for sending him to us. Please pray that the language and culture will be no obstacle for him and that he makes a good connection with the young people. Please pray for our children who are in their second year of college and face great challenges and tests of their faith. Pray they will find good fellowship and Christian friends.”