What's the Point??

Have you ever asked that question? I sure have...

What is this all about? Why are we here? Why are we supposed to do this? Or that?

Why pray? Why read your Bible?

Somehow, we've become terribly confused. (Or at least I know I get confused about this all too often... ) We tend to think that the reason we pray is so that we can check off that particular box on our check list. Or, maybe, we think about it a little more-- and we pray so that this or that will happen or not happen. (We hope.)

We read our Bibles because someone told us that is how to "grow". (What does "grow" mean, anyways??) Or, perhaps, because we want to learn some kind of principles for how to live our lives.

Basically, if we even do them regularly at all, they are focused on US. What we will get. Maybe joy, or peace, or comfort, or encouragement, or maybe a husband, or a nice house, or... you name it.

Is that the point?

If that was the complete and total point--to be benefited personally from those two activities-- then... wouldn't that mean humans are The Point?

I don't know about you, but if I am the point of all this... that is one pretty pathetic point.

No... thankfully, we are not the point. We are not the reason we pray or study our Bibles or do any of the millions of things we do.

The Point, of course, is....

GOD.

We pray so we can better know Him: how He works; His will; His character; His heart.

We read the Scriptures because in them we can learn what God says; Who He is; what He has done; what He promises; and much more.

That changes things, doesn't it?

If we are praying for the purpose of knowing God more... if we are spending time worshiping Him and thinking about Who He is (at least, the small bit of "Who He is" that we know so far)... suddenly, prayer is exciting. It is a treasure hunt. It is an exploration of Someone we can never come to the end of. We begin lose sight of our puny little selves (what a relief!) and become lost in the wonder of Who God is...

And the more we know God, the better we will be able to pray: we will learn to pray things that are on His heart--things He longs to answer.  We will come to better understand His answers to our prayers.

If we are reading the Bible with the goal of finding out something about God... what an exciting adventure it becomes!

Imagine if all of us earnestly, constantly sought after God... what a difference there would be in our lives and in our conversations!!

"God is awesome" chats/talks wouldn't be a rare occurrence--they would be an integral part of everyday life! Instead of talking to people in church about how good the food was or wasn't the music a little slow today or hey are you coming to soccer or ooh, cute shirt or any number of other all too common, pathetically shallow conversations...

It would be, "HEY!!! Guess what I learned about God this week!!!!" or "Look at these verses I found!! Did you ever think about how amazing it is that God just spoke and all of this came into existence?!?" or "This week, when I was praying, God taught me..." or "isn't God AWESOME?!"

Imagine if you were able to ask your friends what God was teaching them that week or what they were excited about in the Bible or what characteristic of God they were most thankful for or any other questions of that nature... and they actually had an enthusiastic response?

Imagine if YOU had an excited response when someone asked you one of those questions!!

Okay, enough imagining: we all know that would be amazing. Anyone who has ever had a "God is awesome" talk knows that those-- to a Christian-- are the most thrilling, soul-satisfying, incredible, awe-inspiring, wonderful, etc, etc, conversations you can possibly have. 

So let's do it! Enough talking, philosophizing, reading, fake prayers... Let's go after God. Let's seek His face.

Let's make it our primary goal in life--no matter what area or activity, whether it be washing dishes or playing soccer or writing or praying or anything else you happen to do-- to know God more.

This is why we exist: to know God, to enjoy Him, to love Him, to glorify Him. 

It's all about Him. Not us.

God.

[And once you're ready for a God is awesome chat/talk, let me know. I'd love to have more of them. :)]