Drawing Near

In a sermon on hindrances to prayer, Charles Spurgeon -- the great English preacher of the 19th Century -- declared,

"To many persons this discourse will have but little reference because they do not pray. I fear, also, there are some others whose prayers are so worthless that if they were hindered it would be of no very material consequence… Merely to bow the knee in formality, to go through a form of devotion in a careless or half-hearted manner is rather to mock God than to worship Him. It would be a terrible theme for contemplation to consider how much of vain repetition and heartless praying the Lord is wearied with from day to day."

Spurgeon's words, spoken at a different time to a church in a different land, are nonetheless, timeless; and, the Colonel fears, all too descriptive of the prayer life of the modern church in America. 

The Colonel wonders, do you suffer from the same spiritual malaise that afflicts him?  Is your prayer life -- the most critical component of a Christian's walk of faith -- earthbound; with feeble, rote prayers seeming to never reach beyond the ceiling?  

To be sure, the omnipresent and omnipotent God who is the Colonel's personal savior hears every word on every man's lips and discerns every thought on every man's mind.  

God hears our prayers.

If there is any break in the communication between the Colonel and his most holy and perfect God, it is entirely the fault of the Colonel.

The Colonel is no Greek scholar, but the Greek dictionary at the back of his study Bible says the English phrase "to pray" is translated from the original Greek word proseuchomai, which is very closely related to the word proserchomai. 

Proserchomai means "to come to; approach; draw near to; to agree to."

The Colonel rather likes to think that the close relation of those two Greek words is no linguistic accident.  

Indeed, is not the act of praying, really an attempt to approach or draw near to God? 

When Jesus modeled for His disciples the components of prayer --what we call "The Lord's Prayer" -- He was teaching them as well the reverent, dependent, and penitent condition required of any supplicant attempting to draw near to God. 

It cuts the Colonel to the core of his flinty heart that he all too often attempts to draw near to God with an irreverent, proudly independent, and unrepentant heart.  

Any wonder then that the Colonel feels his prayers go, by and large, unanswered?  

How dare the Colonel, black-hearted sinner that he is, flippantly attempt to enter into God's presence?!?

"But, wait," you ask. "Doesn't Jesus' sacrifice on the cross cover the Colonel's sin?  Didn't Jesus pay the Colonel's wages of sin."

Indeed, Jesus is the Colonel's substitute.  The Colonel's sin not only separates him from a most holy and perfect God, but requires a sentence of death at his final judgment.  But, when the Colonel, as all men will, stands before God to be sentenced to the eternal separation from God that the Colonel's many sins deserve, Jesus will step in between God and this black-hearted sinner and tell the most holy and perfect One, "This one accepted Me as his savior. I died for him."  

So, the Colonel's sinful nature, for which he was convicted of the need for repentance leading to salvation, is forgiven at his final judgment.  

But, the Colonel continues to sin.  And so, there is a continual need to confess, and repent of, those sins and to accept God's forgiveness. 

To the Colonel, that is the beauty of a personal relationship with God.  It is not a one-time, check-in-the-box, salvation event.  It is an on-going relationship, the health of which can only be maintained by continual confession and repentance.  Continual guilt over sin is not the goal, however.  Accepting God's forgiveness of sin replaces guilt with personal peace.

Cutting to the chase, unconfessed sin (an unforgiving spirit prominent among those of the Colonel's many) prevents him from drawing closer to God, because God cannot accept sin in His presence.  It follows then, that the more sin the Colonel admits, confesses, repents of, and receives/accepts forgiveness for, the nearer God allows him to draw to His presence.

In his epistle to the churches of Asia Minor, John wrote,

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."  1 John 1: 8 -- 9  

Faithful and just.  Forgiveness of our sins is a promise from a faithful and just God, whose one desire of us -- the reason why He created us in the first place -- is a close, personal relationship.