Communicating with God

Communication

I have spoken a lot in recent blog posts about listening to God. Yet ‘to communicate’ is an interactive verb. In other words – it’s a two way thing. So communication with God is supposed to be a two-way conversation. Yet, for so many of us, it’s a one way dialogue – frequently a diatribe. Far too often we take our ‘shopping list’ to God and if it’s not a shopping list it’s a list of advisory points!

How arrogant we can become – standing before the Lord God Almighty, advising Him on topics we know little about and of which we understand even less. Sometimes we stand there and treat Him like a kind of Santa Claus – “Lord, you know my heart, all I want is . . . . . . . “ He sure does know your heart, and you sure ain’t getting your ‘I want’ list!

Isaiah 40:12-14 puts it thus, “ Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?”

Then in Job 38:1-11 God speaks to Job saying, “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

“Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? “

Sometimes, it seems, we tend to forget just who God really is. Sometimes we forget that He has promised to supply our needs but not our wants. He knows what we need but He may not be very interested in what we want.

This is why it is so important for communication with God to be an exchange rather than a one-way request list of mixed needs and wants. This is why God wants so much to just talk to us – if only we’d be still, know that He is God, and listen.