QUESTION 18
Should
Prayer Be Formal?
God is GOD. He is called
the All-sufficient One, the Supreme! In a way, He cannot help but be these
for they describe what He IS.
God is Creator. Creation
is out of Him for outside of Him there was, then, nothing! Creation
is what He brought into being, and creating He continues to do.
He is King of kings
for it is He Who sets people in exalted positions or brings them down to
the dust. It is His right to set things to order by command!
But, it is wonderful to know,
that all these lead inexorably to the desire of His heart, that
touches the very core of His Being - God is FATHER. To us, the most
important attribute of God is that He is Love. Who else would have,
and could have, brought into being creatures so that they could, and will,
share
in His Being?
Where His other attributes
demand, in a way, due reverence, separation, and formality, His love reaches
out to His creation to draw them close. When all is said and done and the
Consummation is arrived at, all His other attributes take a back seat to
the fact that He IS, then, Father and the All in each and
every one of His creatures. Each one would have been brought to be, through
essential experience, a mature son and worthy of his place!
When we have this understanding
of Who and What God is, and what the process is that He is
operating, we begin to see that it is righteous to have a true reverence
for God. Formality, however, is a grim reminder of an alienation and separation
from Him. To hold on to formality is to set up an unnatural obstacle
to an intended family relationship with God. It would be stilted, awkward,
artificial, inhibited and uncomfortable.
Our prayers should be spontaneous
and confident, arising from our realisation of a wholesome relationship
with God - as between Father and sons. It should be a sharing of our innermost
'growing up' thoughts, desires and intentions, a comparing of notes, so
to say.
September 2001
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