It's All About Relationship

"Everything you were designed to experience and enjoy is found in God.  Knowing God is your life and your highest joy.  You either believe that or you don't.  Believe it and you will experience and enjoy life, real life, eventually.  Guaranteed.  Disbelieve it and, at best, you will experience counterfeit life and enjoy it only for a season."

I have found these words that Larry Crabb wrote in his book THE PAPA PRAYER to be true.  Hey, I'm not bragging or anything.  Sadly, for a season and then on more than one occasion, I chose poorly.  Yes, I have experienced "counterfeit life."  But living a counterfeit life is not how our Creator designed us.  And it's not how I've chosen to live my life now.

Reading Psalm 91 today from the Message version of the Bible, I was struck with how relational God's words are to us, His sons and daughters:

"If you'll hold on to me for dear life," says God,

"I'll get you out of any trouble.

I'll give you the best of care

if you'll only get to know and trust me.

Call me and I'll answer, be at your side in bad

times;

I'll rescue you, then throw you a party."

            Psalm 91:14-15 (emphasis mine)

This particular Psalm is so familiar.  But today it read differently.  Rather than being all about me and how God would do all this great stuff for me, it hit my heart as a plea.  Here is the God of all the Universe pleading for me to "get to know and trust" Him.  What else can it be but relationship?  Clearly, He knows what Crabb says is true and He wants the best for His kids!

Crabb's book title is a turn-off for me.  I never called my dad or any other father figure papa.  It's just not a term my family has ever used.  Goodness knows, coming to terms with my own father wounds was a huge obstacle to get through before I felt comfortable calling God, Father.  But Papa?

Actually, PAPA is an acronym:

Present yourself to God
Attend to how you're thinking of God
Purge anything blocking your relationship with God
Approach God as the "first thing" in your life

What this is, is a form of relational praying modeled after the Lord's Prayer (see my blog post How To Pray for more on this).

A confession:  So much of my praying has been driven out of a deep performance orientation along with narcissistic tendencies resulting in me attempting to create my own happy life.  Somewhere within I'd think that if I just did it right or enough or with the proper intentionality, then God would hear and I'd get what I was asking for.  It's clear to me now that this was steeped in duty and obligation, not rooted as a son knowing and resting in the love of his True Father.

Another confession:  Many of the teachers I've been drawn to, especially on all forms of prayer including spiritual warfare, lean toward a similar view as what I had.  No, I'm not advocating throwing it all out the window.  What I am saying is exactly what Crabb says in the quote atop this post and that is that GOD be the first thing.  Anything that gets in the way of God being the first thing in our lives, including things like warfare prayer, is out of place...wrongly ordered in our lives.

Obviously, I heartily recommend "The PAPA Prayer" or I would not have written all of this about it!  Just be aware that reading it and then following "A Simple Four-Day Plan" which starts on page 171 of the book, is likely to shake some things up in your life a bit; particularly if, like me, so much of that life has been all about creating your own happy life following the many guru-given principles du jour and using God as a sort of modern-day vending machine.