2022-10-16 Prayer - Attend to how you are thinking about God

When I entered high school, one of my teachers was Mr. Crabbe. In my opinion, he lived up to his name. I didn’t enjoy his class at all. He was sarcastic and I dreaded being made to look like a fool in front of everyone else in my class. As I progressed through school, I didn’t have him all that often but every time I did, I didn’t like it. Until Grade 12. By then I had matured a lot and I finally figured him out. I realized that what Mr. Crabb really wanted was for his students to give it right back to him. When he made a snide comment to me, I would give one right back and a sly grin would come over his face. After that, I began to really enjoy his teaching. What changed? Not him. It was me that changed. My maturity and confidence grew, and my understanding of my teacher grew. Once I understood him correctly, I enjoyed my interaction with him. My image of him began to change and as it did, my relationship with him grew.

The same has been true many times my life. The other day I was talking with a friend about two brothers we both knew but at different times. I mentioned that they had a certain swagger to them, but not a negative swagger. Once I explained it, he completely agreed. The two brothers we were talking about have always been confident people and so can come across as arrogant. After getting to know them, I have come to the conclusion that they’re not arrogant, just confident in who they are. If you think of them as arrogant, you’ll approach them differently than if you don’t.

How you see people affects everything about your interaction with them. If you think of a person as stupid, often you’ll talk down to them. This is a struggle that stutterers often have, people think they’re stupid and treat them that way. If you see a certain person as influential, or rich, often you’ll try to curry favour with them. If you see someone as loose lipped, you won’t share anything with them that you want kept a secret. When people see someone as a pushover, they’ll take advantage of them. If you think of someone as incompetent, you won’t trust them with an important task.

There’s no question, the image that we have about someone affects our relationship to them. It affects how we interact with them.

The same is true of our relationship with God. The image that you have of God will affect how you approach him, or even if you do. Your image of God will affect how much you hunger to know God and be known by him.

A few weeks back I began a 5 Sunday look at prayer called the PAPA prayer, based on the book by Larry Crabb of the same name. Here is a quick review of the four elements

“P: Present yourself to God without pretense.

A: Attend to how you’re thinking of God.

P: Purge yourself of anything blocking your relationship with God.

A: Approach God as the ‘first thing’ in your life, as your most valuable treasure, the Person you most want to know. (blank)

P10, The Papa Prayer

Last Sunday we learned how to present ourselves to God without pretense, being completely honest about where we are at, not holding anything back. By the way, how did you do this past week with being honest with God? How did it feel? Did you sense less of a distance between you and God? Does anyone want to share a little about their experience? If you’re watching from home and you’d like to share, please text (204) 392-3530.

(blank)

Pause for people to share.

Today we’ll focus on the second part of the PAPA Prayer, A: Attend to how you’re thinking of God.. (blank)

Our Images of God

All of us have images of God. They are formed by a myriad of things; the teaching we’ve received in the churches we’ve attended, the homes we grew up in, the prior experiences we’ve had with God, our particular culture’s images of God, etc. We have them whether we want to or not, they’re part of our subconscious and we can have multiple images of God at the same time and flip between them. Some of us would have a hard time identifying our image, some not so much. If you pay attention while you are praying, and ask yourself what image comes to mind, you might be surprised at what you describe. Listen as Larry Crabbe tells of his interaction with someone. “I asked one person who she visualized God to be as she talked to Him, and she quickly replied, ‘A pygmy in a wheelchair.’ I hadn’t heard that one before, so I asked what that strange image symbolized. ‘I sometimes feel like I’m talking to an undersized person who’s too disabled, though He means well, to do much of anything.’”

Crabb has identified 11 common images that people have of God. As I list them and talk about them, see if one or more of them describes the God you pray to.

Smiling Buddy – The God who just likes hanging out with you. No demands, no rules, just a good time. Prayer becomes simply you, asking for a favour from a chum.

Backroom Watchmaker – a lot of people see God this way. This version of God is the creator God who sets everything up, winds it up like a clock and then sits back and watches everything unfold. Now he has other things to do. Whatever will be will be. If this is your God, why pray at all? This version of God never interferes in the events of this world anyway. People with this image of God usually have a resigned attitude and try to accept everything happening as somehow good. Or they don’t bother praying at all.

Preoccupied King – this one is kind of self-explanatory. God is so high up and occupied with very important things to do that he pays no attention to the ‘little people’ like you and I. He’s absorbed with big things like cultural wars, evangelism of the world, deciding who will be in power next in which country, etc. He’s just to busy to bother with our cares and worries. If you pray to him, you do it out of obligation with not much hope of him taking the time to hear and do anything.

Vending Machine – This version of God is simple; you tithe and do your acts of service so that God will give you good things. A bit like the smiling buddy and Santa Claus, but with even less relationship. Prayer to a God like this is actually all about what I want and figuring out the right words to say so that I can get it. In some ways it’s more like magic. Say the right incantation and presto, God grants you what you asked for.

Stern Patriarch – Many people who grew up in homes with fathers like this or in legalistic homes and churches have an image of God like this. He’s the father that is always rapping your knuckles when you do wrong. He never plays with you, but always expects good behaviour. Prayer becomes stiff and rigid. God has transcendence (God above us) but no immanence (God with us).

Kindly Grandfather – Here we have the smiling old man surrounded by his grandkids. His job is to love them, but not discipline them. He let’s them skip the vegetables but makes sure they always get the ice cream, no matter their behaviour. A person with this image of God really struggles when they don’t get what they pray for. “It’s not fair” they whine.

Impersonal Force – think Star Wars or gravity. This is different than the Backroom Watchmaker and the Preoccupied King. They are at least persons. The Impersonal Force is exactly that, impersonal. There is no love, no relationship. Nothing we do will make a difference. Prayer, at best, might redirect the flow of electricity, but it never connects you to someone who loves you. No relationship is even possible. This is more of a Buddhist idea than a Christian idea.

Cruel Tyrant – Think many of our culture’s cartoons and jokes. This God is simply looking down from heaven and striking people with bolts of lightening when they cross the line. Who wants a relationship with a God like that? Unless you yourself want his help in being a tyrant like him. And since he’s so bad, you may as well pursue as much pleasure here on earth with the few days you have. Since he’s a tyrant, your prayer to him is more like appeasing his anger and trying to change his mind by sucking up to him.

Moral Crusader – This version God is the one who is always against some moral depravity, abortion, gambling, substance abuse, sexual deviancy, etc. When you pray to this version of God, you’re always imploring him to help you fight these evils in society. This one is similar to the Stern Patriarch. Prayer about personal items always takes back seat to the war going on against evil. Similar to the Moral Crusader is the

Theological Stickler – This is common among nonrelational theologians, pharisaical elders and controlling pastors. What matters most is having the right beliefs, down to minute details. Are you pre-trib or post-trib? What is your view of justification? If you don’t have the exactly right beliefs, God won’t hear your prayers. What you do doesn’t matter as much as what you believe. Love is definitely lower down the list. Prayer to this version of God is more a matter of joining forces with him to fight heresy.

Romantic Lover – God loves you personally. What else needs to be said? What else matters? God’s sole concern is to satisfy your heart and communicate to you how profoundly he loves you. All your prayers become focused on feeling God’s love for you, pursuing an ecstatic experience with him. Whatever creates feelings of angst or difficulty you run from. People with this view of God tend to value experiences of internal satisfaction above all else and their prayers become narcissistic because really the focus is on what I feel. (blank)

So what’s your image of God? Is the God you pray to uninterested like the Watchmaker or the Impersonal Force? Is he Cruel or Stern? Is he soft and a pushover like the Kindly Grandfather?

How do we gain the correct image of God? Why does it matter?

Biblical Picture of God

What’s interesting about many of these images of God that people have is that most of them zero in on one aspect of God that is in the Bible and blow it out of proportion. The Biblical picture we get of God is far more robust and multi-orbed than any of these 11 caricatures I described for you. The Bible is God’s self-revelation of himself to humankind. The picture of God that we get in the Bible is a complex picture, both far clearer than each of these false images and far more mysterious. The picture we get of God when we read the Bible is a composite image kind of like this mosaic image from Canada’s 150 celebration. Every encounter with God in the Bible adds to our image of him. (blank)

Is God a Smiling Buddy? No, he is the God of the universe, not your ’buddy’, but he is a “friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Is God a backroom Watchmaker? No and yes, he is a watchmaker, he did create everything and put it into place, but he has never stopped being involved in this world and he sustains everything. Life comes from him and if he withdrew it would all collapse.

Is God Preoccupied King? He is a King, the King of Kings, but is he preoccupied with more important things? Absolutely not. He knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows everything about you and handles everything else at the same time.

Is he a Vending Machine? No, definitely not. Again, he is personal, not an impersonal machine to be manipulated for own pleasures. At the same time, all good things come from him. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

Is God a Stern Patriarch? Yes, the story of God’s dealings with the children of Israel on the way to Canaan from Egypt bear that out. He is our Father, and at times he can be stern, but he is far more than just stern. He is loving and gracious and desires relationship.

Is God a Kindly Grandfather? No, he is no one’s grandfather. All who come to him in faith become his children through adoption! Is he kind? Yes, but he is also fierce. He is at once the kindest and fiercest. He is a disciplinarian because he loves us so deeply. He does not let us get away with whatever we want.

Is God an Impersonal Force? No, absolutely not! He is very personal, but he is also a force to be reckoned with. All power is ultimately found in him.

Is God a theological stickler? He cares deeply about what we believe about him. Read Romans and Hebrews. They are chalk full of teaching on theology. Bad theology will lead us to have the wrong image of God. At the same time, he also cares deeply about how much we love as 1 Cor. 13 and 1 John point out. Love covers over a multitude of sins, including theological ones!

Is God a moral crusader? Yes, there are entire sections of the OT Law that lay out in detail what is right and wrong behaviour, as does the Sermon on the Mount.

Is God a Romantic Lover? Yes, read Hosea and the Isaiah. He woos us and calls us to be his bride. But he is also concerned about

You may have notice I missed #8. Cruel Tyrant. This is the only one of these 11 without a shred of truth to it. God is not a cruel tyrant. However, I certainly believe that some people experience him that way. Paul puts it this way in 2 Cor. 2:15, 16 “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life.” If you want nothing to do with God and work against him, you will experience him as cruel. You will experience his judgement. But it is a reluctant judgement, it's not what he wants to do. He is not a tyrant.

How do we get a correct image of God? In short, keep reading the Bible. Keep listening to the Bible. If you want to narrow it down, read the gospels and the rest of the New Testament. According to Hebrews 1:3, Jesus is the exact representation of God. Do you want to know what God is like, look to Jesus. But don’t just pick the parts of Jesus that you like. Get the full orbed version. The loving Jesus who heals and casts out demons and forgives, but who also castigated the Pharisees and talked about the judgement to come. The beauty of the incarnation of Jesus, God becoming flesh, is that because we understand people well, we can look at the story of Jesus, the human being, and see what God is like. Or at least, what he was like when he was here on earth.

The Glorified Jesus

There is one more picture of Jesus that we need to fix in our minds. Near the end of his life, the disciple John was exiled to the island of Patmos. Likely he had refused to burn a pinch of incense to Caesar and declare that he was Lord and God. The only man that ever deserved that title was Jesus and John was loyal to him. Listen to his words. (read Rev. 1:10-18) (blank)

John saw Jesus as he is now, the ascended Lord. Clearly, it’s full of symbolism. This is the Jesus we pray to and worship.

Jesus is the son of man. Hundreds of years before Jesus, Daniel had a vision of the Son of Man who was the Ancient of Days. This term refers to God incarnate.

He’s wearing the robe of a priest and the sash is around his chest. Workmen wrapped the sash around their waist like a belt to keep their robes from getting in the way. When they were done their work, they put it around their chest. Jesus’ work is done.

Jesus has pure white hair. Jesus is ageless and wise beyond all wisdom and pure.

His eyes are like blazing fire. He sees us completely. They pierce right through all the masks and facades we put up. He sees us as we are and yet loves us.

His feet are like glowing bronze. When Daniel saw a vision of a statue of King Nebuchadnezzar it had feet of clay mixed with iron. It was brittle and broke, and all the kingdoms came tumbling down. Jesus’ feet are fire-tested bronze. They are firm. His kingdom will never fail or end.

His voice is like the sound of rushing waters. His voice is both soothing and it blocks out all other voices. He has the final say. John hears nothing but him.

In his right-hand Jesus holds seven stars. These stars represent the churches. Jesus is in charge. He holds them in his hand. They are secure in him.

Out of his mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword. It isn’t along broad sword, but a short, curved sword. This sword is his word which cuts away all that is unclean. He gets up close to us and deals with the sin in our lives and makes us whole.

His face is like the sun in all it’s brilliance. Remember the High Priestly blessing from Numbers 6? “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Jesus in all his glory looked directly at John and shone on him.

About right then, do you think John thought of Jesus as a vending machine or impersonal or a buddy? He didn’t go, ‘Hey Jesus, how’s it going? Could you give me a good sleep tonight? The rocks in the cave are kind of rough, could you arrange for a mattress to be delivered?’ Not likely.

He fell down as though dead but Jesus, personally, put his right hand on him and lifted him up and spoke to him with words that reassured John that all the suffering he had endured for the risen Lord was worth it. “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

We worship and pray to this Jesus. The one who is the full measure of God. If we have become his disciples and are following him, we don’t have to be afraid to speak to him. He has cleansed us from all sin. He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He is the conquering lamb of God.

Conclusion

When you pray, after becoming transparent before God, attend do how you think about God. Check if your image of God is accurate. Measure it against Jesus in the gospels and Jesus in heaven. Change your image deliberately and consciously to match the Bible’s image of him. The full orbed image of him, the composite image that is fully present in Jesus. I can guarantee you that it will change how you pray. Your prayers will become deeper, more real and less frivolous. And the more you pray to this Jesus, the more yourself you will become.

Pray

Benediction.

Related Media

Related Sermons