The Occasional Occurence

My good friend Ryan recently posted some thoughts about hearing from and praying to God:

Some honest questions from an honest person who has been a “Christian” for some time now.

“How does one hear God?” Lately, I’ve heard lots of people begin their sentences with “I felt like God was telling me…” or “God seems to be moving me…” and the famous, “God told me clearly…” uh!, am I just not hearing from God like these people are or what?

I have asked the same question before on a number of occasions. There are a number of cases in the Bible where God audibly speaks to someone with an important message. Like Ryan said, we all hear people who at some point have "heard" from God. But I, personally, have not heard His "voice".

I think something that my eyes have been opened to since moving back to Ohio and joining First Mennonite Church is how God can speak to us through the community that is the church. Maybe I have been brainwashed by the Mennonite ideal of the importance of the community, but I really have seen this lately. As far as I know, the church has been the only physical representative of God on earth since the time of Christ. I think that it is wholly scriptural that one of the ways that God speaks to us today is through the church; the church is "The Body of Christ", after all.

Another way that we can hear from God is through scripture. I took quite a hiatus from reading scripture. I have been a Christian for many years. The Bible started to feel old. I recently picked it back up on the advice of one of my brothers-in-law. It has been a good experience. Even though the text of the book has not changed, I have changed so the words strike me in new ways.

So, no, nothing audible here. But I think that the Bible is more an account of the exceptional than the ordinary. The miracles always get all the press. So just because everyone in the Bible is seeing a burning bush or an angel or something doesn't mean that it is the real norm, in my opinion.

That is not to say that God can't/doesn't do those kind of things today. I think He probably does. But I don't think it is something that we should sweat if we haven't seen it in our limited personal experience.

Then, there’s the issue of prayer that has no doubt brought about many mis-guided agendas I’m sure. At my former “Christian” schools I would hear things like “God is answering our prayers because x number of students signed up for next year,” or we need to be praying specifically that God would bring x number of students so our enrollment goes up” Does God care about students signing up for a “Christian” school so they can balance the budget? Does God care about our baseball games and whether or not they get rained out or the church picnics who are prayed for routinely for sun-shiney weather? Does God care about my decisions? I’m sure He does, but to what extent?

This is another one that I have also pondered. Why should I ever pray for some "bonus" for my life when there are so many others in the world just struggling to survive? Looking at the blessings in my life, I hardly feel justified requesting much of anything from God for myself.

On the other hand, there are places in the Bible where it seems like we should be asking God for things. What those things are exactly, I don't know.

I guess I pray for my children, and my wife. I pray for friends. Are those the right things? Speaking of children, is that how we should approach God - with the faith of a child? How should that play out, exactly? Children can be quite selfish in their requests (trust me, I know this :-) ).

Sorry Ryan, not too many answers here. Basically I just wanted to share a similar experience. You aren't alone, man.

cw