Why Pray Now? or Where is God?

Where is God?

It is important to recognize that God dwells in a different realm. He occupies another dimension. “My thoughts are not like your thoughts. Your ways are not like my ways. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8–9).
Make special note of the word like. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are they even like ours. We aren’t even in the same neighborhood. We’re thinking, Preserve the body; he’s thinking, Save the soul. We dream of a pay raise. He dreams of raising the dead. We avoid pain and seek peace. God uses pain to bring peace. “I’m going to live before I die,” we resolve. “Die so you can live,” he instructs. We love what rusts. He loves what endures. We rejoice at our successes. He rejoices at our confessions.
Our thoughts are not like God’s thoughts. Our ways are not like his ways. He has a different agenda. He dwells in a different dimension. He lives on another plane.
What controls you doesn’t control him. What troubles you doesn’t trouble him. What fatigues you doesn’t fatigue him. Is an eagle disturbed by traffic? No, he rises above it. Is the whale perturbed by a hurricane? Of course not; he plunges beneath it. Is the lion flustered by the mouse standing directly in his way? No, he steps over it.
How much more is God able to soar above, plunge beneath, and step over the troubles of the earth! “What is impossible with man is possible with God” (see Matt. 19:26). Our questions betray our lack of understanding:
How can God be everywhere at one time? (Who says God is bound by a body?)
How can God hear all the prayers that come to him? (Perhaps his ears are different from yours.)
How can God be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? (Could it be that heaven has a different set of physics than earth?)
How vital that we pray, armed with the knowledge that God is in heaven. Pray with any lesser conviction, and our prayers are timid, shallow, and hollow. Look up and see what God has done, and watch how your prayers are energized.
This knowledge gives us confidence as we face the uncertain future. We know that he is in control of the universe, and so we can rest secure. But important also is the knowledge that this God in heaven has chosen to bend near toward earth to see our sorrow and hear our prayers. He is not so far above us that he is not touched by our tears.
Though we may not be able to see his purpose or his plan, the Lord of heaven is on his throne and in firm control of the universe and our lives. So we entrust him with our future. We entrust him with our very lives.

by Max Lucado
From
For These Tough Times:
Reaching Toward Heaven for Hope and Healing
© (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006) Max Lucado
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LAWS of the Lighthouse
• Love God more than you fear hell.
• Once a week, let a child take you on a
walk.
• Make major decisions in a cemetery.
• When no one is watching, live as if
someone is.
• Succeed at home first.
• Don’t spend tomorrow’s money today.
• Pray twice as much as you fret.
• Listen twice as much as you speak.
• Only harbor a grudge when God does.
• Never outgrow your love of sunsets.
• Treat people like angels; you will meet
some and help make some.
• ‘Tis wiser to err on the side of generosity
than on the side of scrutiny.
• God has forgiven you; you’d be wise to
do the same.
• When you can’t trace God’s hand, trust
his heart.
• Toot your own horn and the notes will be
flat.
• Don’t feel guilty for God’s goodness.
• The book of life is lived in chapters, so
know your page number.
• Never let the important be the victim of
the trivial.
• Live your liturgy.
To sum it all up:
Approach life like a
voyage on a schooner. Enjoy the view. Explore the vessel. Make friends with the captain.
Fish a little. And then get off when you get home.
From
In the Eye
of the Storm
Copyright 1991 Max Lucado