{"id":4013,"date":"2020-08-12T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=4013"},"modified":"2020-08-12T07:57:37","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T12:57:37","slug":"studies-in-prayer-who-is-this-god-we-pray-to-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/studies-in-prayer-who-is-this-god-we-pray-to-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Studies in Prayer: Who is this God We Pray To?"},"content":{"rendered":"
We are continuing today with the question. When we pray to God, \u201cWho is this God we pray to?\u201d What image of God do you have in mind when you pray? How do you picture God when you pray?<\/div>\n
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In his book, \u201cTHE PAPA PRAYER,\u201d Larry Crabb identifies ten common images of God that are in people’s minds when they pray. <\/div>\n
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We covered five of them yesterday: <\/div>\n
TEN COMMON IMAGES OF GOD <\/div>\n
1. SMILING BUDDY <\/div>\n
2. BACKROOM WATCHMAKER <\/div>\n
3. PREOCCUPIED KING <\/div>\n
4. VENDING MACHINE <\/div>\n
5. STERN PATRIARCH <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Today, we look at the next five:<\/div>\n
See if one (or a blend of several) of these describes the God you pray to:<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
6. KINDLY GRANDFATHER <\/div>\n
Parents do the discipline, grandparents do the fun. Our job is to let them skip vegetables and go right to the ice cream. Prayers to a kindly grandfather sound like the whiny pleadings of an insufferably adorable child. A little girl hugs your neck. A little boy playfully pokes your arm. “OK, you can have candy before dinner. But just one piece. Well, maybe two.” <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
7. IMPERSONAL FORCE <\/div>\n
This is the “blank stare” image of God. Not the watchmaker who has already done what he’s going to do. Not the king who’s preoccupied with concerns more important than yours. Watchmakers and kings at least are people who can be persuaded. But this idea of God is a power that cannot be harnessed. It’s the image of an impersonal force. Straight from Star Wars. We don’t respond with the fatalism of a deist. We feel more the despair of an impotent person in a world of uncontrollable power. If God wants us to have cancer, we’ll get cancer. We’ll pray for healing, but with no excitement, no real hope. Nothing we do makes a difference. God is more a thing than a person. Prayer, at best, might redirect the flow of electricity, but it never connects you to someone who loves you. There is no relational connection in this view. <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
8. CRUEL TYRANT <\/div>\n
It’s hard at times to not see God as cruel. He directed Satan’s attention to Job, a good man, and then turned the devil loose to torture him. It sometimes takes real effort to call God good. And when you doubt His goodness, sin seems very reasonable. Why not? Find a little pleasure in a world run by a God who has no interest in looking out for you. Is that so wrong? Prayer? Pray (to whom is unclear) that the cruel tyrant will have a change of heart. Or try to believe He’s good deep down and needs a little coaxing to display His better side.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
9. MORAL CRUSADER <\/div>\n
In this one, what God hates most are visible sins, the sins of culture-abortion, pornography, gambling, same-sex marriage, racism, political corruption, and adultery, to name a few. Personal spiritual formation is a secondary concern. Turning the national tide back to God is the first thing. That needs to be the passion of our prayers, at all-night vigils, prayer conferences, and stadium events. Mobilize resources and raise money. Make something happen. Devote your best spiritual energy to praying about the things that matter most to the moral crusader we worship. <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
10. ROMANTIC LOVER <\/div>\n
God loves us, as individuals. What else needs to be said? What else matters? He longs to satisfy our hearts, to communicate how profoundly He loves us so that we can feel valuable, special, and cherished. Center your life on pursuing the experience of deep connection to God. Pray for it. Whatever comes into your life that provides an experience of ecstasy, of soul connection, thank God for it. Whatever creates misery, run from it, into the arms of your Lover. With this understanding of God, prayer is reduced to the narcissistic yearnings of the self-worshiper, one who values the experience of internal satisfaction now above all other goods. <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
There they are. Ten pictures of God that may come to our minds when we pray. Each one distorts prayer into something other than relating to the God who is who He is. <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
How do you picture God when you pray? Think about it. Attend to it. Next time you talk to God, step back for a minute and ask yourself, “Who do I think I’m talking to?”<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Tomorrow we ask, so who is this God we pray to?<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are continuing today with the question. When we pray to God, \u201cWho is this God we pray to?\u201d What image of God do you have in mind when you pray? How do you picture God when you pray?   In his book, \u201cTHE PAPA PRAYER,\u201d Larry Crabb identifies ten common images of God that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4013"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4013"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4017,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4013\/revisions\/4017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}