One of the best kept secrets of Christendom is that God is really good company. I discovered it quite by accident when I began to pray. I do not remember anyone ever telling me that i would get to the point where I would enjoy being with God. I remember knowing some serious praying people, the very spiritual brothers who would pray with fire and passion and I wanted to pray like them and in fact was convinced that was the only way to pray, which is a good thing, because it is. Then I met the insipid, lifeless, neutered praying of some overly relaxed Charismatics who reproached me for weeping in prayer during prayer meetings convinced it must be due to some serious dysfunction in my life. We had a word for it, intercession.
When God began to press me to hang out with Him all day rather than mornings alone, I thought oh no, He wants to turn me into a fanatic, and frankly I thought it would be rather dour, take all the fun out of life, who wants to talk to God all the time. But as usual I was proven wrong and He right. So I want to tell someone today, God is really good company. Of course you have to retrain your lazy, sloppy self to like being with Him, you have to undergo a perspective transformation and rid yourself of the massive negative brainwashing of your godless days that pictured God if indeed He existed either as some remote, sphinx like entity or some irascible unpredictable being, in any case to be avoided at all costs.
Sadly to some Christians God is still that formidable, fearsome unapproachable deity that you must first appease with human sacrifice, preferably your own, by mouthing meaningless words of submission before He even gives you the time of day. Whereas to others He is the divine butler mostly shunned due to my busy schedule, but who exists to do my will and at the first summons must show up with the requisite item on a platter, but whose company, well, that is another matter. Thus they live on in the mud of spiritual life. That is why prayer is painful for most of us, we have wallowed in the mud too long and walking into a nice, clean house feels really strange initially, but the good news is, we soon get used to it. That is the way of things.
God is good company, especially when you have the courtesy to listen to Him rather than ply Him with foolish, self centred requests and reproach, really the cheek of us sometimes; standing before one who knows all things and doing all the talking. God is good company when you learn to play by His rules, honour Him all day rather than flatter Him for one hour a day and then frolic with the devil and His minions the rest of the time. God is good company when your desire is to know Him, discover Him, adore Him and not throw Him morsels of praise to keep Him quiet and ensure His happy compliance with all your dastardly plans. That is why the Bible says He gives grace to the humble and resists the proud.
We will get to the point where we seriously enjoy praying when we take God seriously for who He is, not for what we can get out of Him. He allows His loveliness, beauty and magnificence to be discovered and enjoyed by those who care. And often He gives a glimpse to some undeserving soul (aren’t we all?) to draw them near and attract them and change their mercenary soul to one of adoration, and it is up to us to seize that moment and pursue majesty rather than enjoy it briefly and go back to playing in the mud.
Even when prayer is hard work because we are partnering with God to break down resistance to His will, it should still be done in the consciousness of His presence., and His Spirit moves us on and invigorates us. As a spiritual leader, one of my greatest desires is to bring people into the realm of consciousness of God in prayer where His loveliness permeates and saturates their being and they discover His beauty, His brilliance and His magnificence and agree to do what is required to live in that realm all their lives. If I can bring people to become lovers of God who truly enjoy His Person, love His company and think highly of Him, then I would have succeeded. My goal is to see the people I minister to unreservedly say ‘He is altogether lovely’ .
Shalom!