The God To Whom We Pray - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, February 10th. God knows where you are, who you're with, and what you're doing every moment of your life. For believers, that means we never face anything alone. Today's podcast teaches you more about the God to whom we pray. And I wonder if someone gave you a piece of paper and said, describe your God to me. I wonder if you had to place on that paper just single words to describe the God whom you worship, the God whom you serve, the God to whom you pray.

I wonder how much of a blank sheet of paper you could fill if you were listening in only single words, the nature, the character, the works of the God whom you serve. Well, I want you to turn, if you will, to Nehemiah, because in this passage of Scripture, I believe the most important element in our prayer life is to be found. Look at the prayer in verse 5 that he prayed. He says, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments. Now, he continues his prayer a little later on, but this is the prayer I want us to notice primarily here. That is, here's a man who has a view of God that brings him such absolute confidence and overwhelming assurance that God is indeed going to hear his prayer. Now, let me just say that I think the most important aspect of prayer, there are lots of elements in prayer, but the most important element in prayer, I believe, is the view of our God. Who is this God to whom I'm praying? My view of God is the bottom line, the foundation of all of my praying.

To whom am I praying? In so many religions of the world, they pray to a God who is transcendent, a God who not only is invisible, but a God who is untouchable. And there's nothing about that God that is sympathetic and loving and good, nothing about that God that says that he pursues them with goodness, that he's stored up goodness for them. And so, when you look at the other religions of the world, there's nothing in all existence to match the Christian faith.

We have a God who is absolutely and the only God we have, and he is the only God, and our God is absolutely unlike all the gods of other religions in the world. And so, he starts his prayer out, O Lord God of heaven. I want you to turn, if you will, and there are some other verses in Nehemiah, but turn, if you will, let's go to Psalms and the book of Daniel. Turn to Psalms for a moment, 65. In Psalm 65, because Nehemiah is not the only one who saw God in this light, look here in the 65th Psalm and the 5th verse. Psalm 65 verse 5, look what he says, by awesome deeds, thou dost answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation. Awesome deeds, indescribable.

Listen, he says, they are so indescribable, what does it do? It brings me to my knees in humility before this God who can do such mighty deeds as these. Look in the 66th Psalm, 5th verse. Come and see the works of God, who is awesome in his deeds toward the sons of men. He turned the sea into dry land.

They passed through the river on foot. There, let us rejoice in him. That is, when we understand that God's mighty deeds and we understand who it is that's done them, what does it do? It brings us into reverence.

That's what he's talking about. Reverencing him, worshiping him, being devoted to him. Well, turn, if you will, to Psalm 111. Psalm 111, look, if you will, at this passage.

In the 9th verse of this 111th Psalm, he says, he has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. Holy and awesome is his name.

They would not even pronounce the name of Jehovah because, listen, because it was so holy in their sight, because it so represented God. And so here he is saying, this is the God whom we serve. Now, somebody said, well, now, wait a minute now, what about, I got something I want to ask you.

Does, is this not a conflict? Isn't this a contradiction to what Jesus said? Turn to Matthew chapter six for a moment, and we call this the Lord's Prayer or the model prayer, the pattern prayer, whatever you want to call it. And if you'll notice in this sixth chapter, the Sermon on the Mount, here, Jesus said, now, this is the way you're to pray. Somebody said, well, now, wait a minute.

We've been hearing about all this. Oh, Lord God, great and awesome God. Now, look at this prayer. Verse nine. Pray then in this way. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and the rest of it are things we need. Now, what I want you to notice is this. Is there a contradiction here?

No, there is not. Look at this. Our Father, who art in heaven, what did Nehemiah say? Oh, Lord God of heaven.

Notice the second thing. He says, hallowed be thy name. Holy is thy name. Great and awesome God to be revered.

The very name is to be revered. He says thy will be done. And what does he say? He talked about obeying.

Look at this. Back to Nehemiah for a moment. Notice what he said. He said, the God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments, acknowledging his rule, the kingdom of God on this earth. And then he talks about the fact that he is a God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness, which meant he has promised to provide for them everything they need. It was just two different aspects here in the Old Testament. Their understanding of God was one thing in the New Testament. Here's what Jesus did. When he came, he did not come to belittle the name of our God.

He did not come to make him, shall we say, less holy, less righteous. But he came to simply say that the Father, that God, this awesome God of this universe, he is a God who is not only absolute in his faithfulness, not only is he infinite in his power, not only is he the Lord Master, but here's something else. He wants to be your father.

He wants to be your intimate friend. Remember what he said to his disciples? He said, I'm not going to call you servants no longer, but he said, we are friends. You and I have the privilege of being, listen, a personal friend to God that doesn't make him any less God than he was and that he is.

He's never changed. He's just as holy as he's ever been. His name is just as holy as it has ever been. Men and women who use the name of God and profane the name of God will pay a price. It is the holy name of God because, you see, his name represents his character, his attributes, his power and represents his deeds. It represents who he is. And so Jehovah God, you see, one word was not sufficient.

And then there are lots of other words, Jehovah Nissi and Jehovah Jireh and all the other words that each one says something about what God does. The very character of God. He is so awesome in his very being. He is so great and majestic in his being.

There is no one word. There are no group of words to describe adequately who this God is. This is the God to whom you and I pray.

This is the God to whom you and I come to say, Lord, here's my request. Here's the challenge. Here's my hurt. Here's my pain. Here's what I'm suffering about.

Here's my need. God, I'm bringing it to you. Who is the God to whom you pray and cry out to him? Or is that God to whom you pray and cry out simply, Lord God?

But somehow you never stop to think, who is this? You say, well, that's what the Bible calls him. And so therefore, that's what I call him.

Yes, I know that's true. But but who is this God? Who is this God to whom you and I pray? So I want to ask you again, if I gave you a sheet of paper and said, write down single words, everything you know about the God to whom you pray.

Before this message, I wonder how many words you could have put down. Would you put down infinite in power, absolute in faithfulness? Would you have placed down that omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, all the words that we hear? When you come to God, do you come to him?

Do you come to him thinking about that? You see, our view of God affects our prayers and it affects our response. It affects many things.

I want to talk about at least three of them that that is certainly is affected. And so when you pray and you ask the Lord and you speak to God, what do you say? Well, look at this. Somebody says, all right.

Now, wait a minute. How does this affect my praying? Can't I just say, Lord and God hear me and answer my prayer?

Why, yes, he can. Well, how does it affect it? Well, let's think about this life. When you and I come and we say, Lord God, which is what Neil Mosley said, we use the same terminology.

The question is, what do I understand about that? Who is the God to whom I'm praying? Is this a God that I can just wrap up in one word and just move right on?

Or is there something else? Well, think about it this way. My view of God is going to influence and greatly affect what I ask Him for. If I just see God is some people seeing just somebody sitting up in heaven just waiting to give me everything I want. That's going to affect some things I ask for.

If I understand who God is. It's going to affect what I ask Him because I'll know that by His character, there's some things He's not going to give me. There's some things He will withhold. There's some there's some things of you He desires to give. He is a God so good and so full of goodness and grace and mercy and love.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. God is interested. God is ready. God is sitting on ready, waiting to answer my prayer. God wants He wants this in your life.

If I understand who is, He's a God who certainly is faithful to His promises. Therefore, I can come to Him. And here's a particular need I have. And He said, here's the need that He will certainly meet.

Then I can come to Him. It will affect. Listen, my my view of God will affect what I ask for.

Not only that, it will affect how big my petitions are. Listen to what Nehemiah asked for. He asked for leave from the king. All the materials he needed.

Guards on the way. Now, he just said, well, who am I asking? This was Nehemiah's opinion, I believe. If you ask Nehemiah, what were you thinking?

Nehemiah was thinking this. I'm talking to the king. I'm talking to the Father. Speaking to the king, make him my request of the Father.

What did he say? Oh, Lord God of heaven, great and awesome God who preserves the covenant, love and kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments. And what was that covenant?

He would bring them back. So what was he saying? Speaking to the king, but talking to God. Asking the king, but believing it from God. And see, oftentimes we limit ourselves into what we ask and how much we ask for, because we ask on the basis of what we think we can do.

We ask on the basis, listen, of our resources. We trust God for what we think we can come up with. Listen, we're to trust God on the basis of who He is, what He has promised. How big is this God? How great is this God?

How awesome is this God? It's going to affect what you ask for. The second thing you view of God's going to affect is this. It's going to affect your lifestyle, because, you see, if I understand that God is holy and righteous and pure, if I understand that He's a God who wants the best for me and wants me to walk in oneness with Him, that's the kind of God He is, then it's going to affect how I live. It's going to affect my behavior. How am I going to come to God, living in deliberate, willful sin, holding on to sin, at the same time expecting God to answer my prayer? Is it going to affect my behavior, my conduct, my view of God?

Yes, it will. Because if I only see Him as somebody up in heaven, out joined to some impersonal being of some force, who somehow gets me what I want in some fashion or some way, by my efforts or somebody else's efforts, it'll have no effect whatsoever on the way I live. The third thing is certainly going to affect is my faith. If I see God as a distant God, if I see Him as one who has favorites, plays favorites, if I see Him as a God who is prejudiced, if I see Him as a God who's stingy, who rules by rules and regulations, if I don't see Him as a God of grace and love and mercy, if I don't see Him as a God of kindness and forgiveness, then when I come to Him to make a request, if I don't have the right view of God, I'm not going to be able to believe Him. You can say, well, I believe He's omnipotent, He's omniscient, He's omnipresent, He's all those things, but I don't know whether He'd answer that for me or not. Why not?

Why not? Because He's a God, listen, He desires the best for His children. He wants to pour out His blessings upon us. Listen, it's no testimony to who God is by being stingy. It's no testimony to God by withholding blessings from us.

That's nothing to Him. It's in His goodness and love and mercy that He draws. And you remember what Paul said. He says, don't you realize that it's by the goodness of God that oftentimes we are led to repentance?

It's we see God expressing who He is. And so we come to Him and say, well, does it, listen, does my view of God have any effect on my prayer? It certainly does.

It certainly does. It affects what I ask for, how much I ask for. It affects my relationship to Him, my relationship to others, my conduct and my behavior. And it affects my faith.

Am I able to believe Him? Well, what's God able to do? The truth is it will affect every aspect of our prayer. And our view of God is going to affect ultimately every aspect of our life. And so it does make a difference how we view God now. But let's think about how many people view Him.

They don't see Him as a holy, righteous God. But I think about many people when they pray, and let me ask you this question. How much time or how often when you pray do you spend any time at all talking to Him about Him? Or do you just simply talk to Him about what you want from Him? He says, do you see God primarily as a giver? Is that the way you see it, primarily as a giver? If you could analyze your prayers more than likely for many people, that's the way they see God.

Now, they wouldn't say, oh, no, I don't know. Stop and ask yourself the question. The last time I prayed, what did I say? Did I bring Him my need? Did I tell Him what I needed to have?

There's nothing wrong with that. He says, ask and it should be given to you. But was that my emphasis? Was that the only interest I had, got Him in trouble? And I wonder how often do you just spend time saying, Lord, I want to know you better. You remember the time I told you, and I've mentioned it a couple of times.

I think I'm going to say it again because this is what I'm talking about. I was up in the mountains praying, and it was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and I will never forget it. And I was down just asking the Lord and talking to Him. And all of a sudden, I just said, Lord, what is it about you that you want me to know above everything else, just like lightning, how much I love you? I will never forget that, like lightning, how much I love you. And I said, what is it about you that you want me to know at this point in my life above everything else, how much I love you?

You know what? It opened my eyes because then I began to see evidences of the love of God that I just walked right by and never paid any attention to. How do people see God?

The giver. Some of them see Him as the operator of 911. When they get in trouble, call on God.

Some of them see Him as their lifesaver. And, Lord, just, I'm in trouble. Please help me. Please help me, God. That's not the God of the Scriptures. And so you say, well, does it affect the way I pray? Does it affect my answers to prayer? Yes, indeed, it does.

It affects every aspect of it. And so when I think about God, He is not my servant. He's not a bellhop just sitting in heaven waiting for me to call on Him for something else. Jehovah, absolute in faithfulness. Elohim, infinite in power. Adonai, master and ruler. This is the God of grace and love and mercy and goodness and kindness and forgiveness that Jesus came to make it possible for you and me to have a relationship with Him.

Now let me ask you this question. Is answered prayer a way of life for you or is it an exception? Are you interested in the giver himself or just the gift he has to give? Do you want to understand and to experience a loving relationship that is so intimate, so indescribably fulfilling, so complete that nothing in this life can possibly match it no matter what? That's the God who is available to you and to me if we will only make ourselves available to Him by trusting His Son Jesus as our Savior, asking Him to forgive us of our sins, which He will do the moment we ask Him based on His death at Calvary, bringing us into a relationship with Him. Listen, that relationship is the beginning.

Listen to this. It is the beginning of an eternal, unbreakable, non-negotiable, irrevocable relationship forever and ever and ever and ever. We are the sons and daughters of Almighty God, God of goodness and love and mercy toward us. That's His invitation to you. And my friend, you would be foolish to turn down an invitation from the God of this universe who has been willing to offer His Son to you as a gift forever and ever and ever.

And with it comes eternal life and every single blessing you'll ever need. Thank you for listening to part two of The God To Whom We Pray. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.