WHO AM I TO YOU?

Prayer and your Image of God

by ALLY CAWTHORN

A.W. Tozer is quoted as saying “What comes into your mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” This feels particularly pertinent when we consider prayer and its centrality to our spiritual journey. What we think or believe about God, and more specifically what we believe about Jesus – who He was and the depth of relationship with God, His death and resurrection allows us, along with the level of insight into the Kingdom He provided, influences our view and practice of prayer. Our theological reality then, is perhaps the single greatest influence on our prayer life.

It may be that you’ve been taught various methods of prayer, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself: What understanding of God and/or what understanding of who I am in Him is influencing the approach I take? For example, who is God when I approach Him as a beggar?

Another way of framing that question is: What image of God is influencing the way I am praying? Other questions that reveal our theological reality include: Who is this God if I believe I must plead with Him to overcome His perceived reluctance to heal, to pour out His Spirit again, to breakthrough for me? Do I understand who I am if I keep asking God to do something that He has equipped, anointed and commissioned me to do?

For many years after I came to faith in Christ, prayer was something I thought I had to do and so became very focused on learning the ‘how to’ of prayer. This was because my subconscious thought was that if I didn’t get prayer ‘right,’ God wouldn’t listen and if I didn’t pray with enough faith, my prayer would be of no effect. There is a theological reality behind these thoughts which informed my prayer – and it was: 'God cares more about rules and regulations and getting the form of prayer right than He does about the heart or the person who has offered the prayer.'

Obviously, I had missed the point. I was yet to receive the revelation of the how infinitely and eternally good He is; that He is always in a good mood and desires relationship with me first – and then a partnership, or a co-labouring with Him to see the Kingdom come. The vision of prayer here is a wonderful synergy between the Spirit of God and our spirit that invites us into a life of exploring the reality of the Kingdom available right now, and my part in seeing that reality manifested on earth.

Prayer will be influenced by your view of God and who you are in Him, so now my view is this: Prayer is being present to the God who is already present to me and awakened to the power I already have in Him. To that I say – Amen!

ALLY CAWTHORN is Senior Pastor of Urban Church, WA, and National Executive member.