I’ve decided to push the pause button on “the flip-side” (see previous post) of Psalm 34:15 and its companion I Peter 3:12. That will come in another post soon.

I’ve never used one of those metal detectors on the beach, but I have the general idea. I want to stop and dig a little into a statement from my previous posting. I wrote,

As our prayers are personal to us, they are more personal to Him.

Give that some thought, even if it hurts. The One to whom you are praying to is Infinite. He is Perfect. His nature is love; infinite and perfect love. He knows us better (or worse depending on how you look at it) than we know ourselves. He knows things about us that we’ll never know.  This translates into our God being MUCH MORE personally involved with us than we are with ourselves. This is how you can be assured that your God loves you Infinitely. Or you can say it with the adverb in a different place–He Infinitely loves you.

As much as we think we love ourselves, we don’t love ourselves like our heavenly Father does, and it’s so obvious. If we did, well … it’s moot anyway because we can’t love ourselves or anyone or anything infinitely. The point is, God does. He loves you infinitely more than you love yourself. He cares infinitely more than you care about yourself. He cares more about YOU than you are capable of, even if you realized who you are in Christ Jesus. He’s infinitely perfect in love and you’re not. Got it?

Another reason the above statement is true:

He is more intimately involved in what you’re doing and where you’re going than you are. God the Father gave His Son so that you would be acquitted, redeemed, cleansed, adopted and glorified in Christ. I’d say that He has, and is, a bit more involved in your life and your destiny than you do. You think?

Why this is important? How can this help?

The answer could be volumes long, but I’ll restrain myself. A favorite strategy of the enemy is to tell you that God doesn’t love you as much as He says. After all, if He cared more, you’d be more blessed.  If God cared as much as you do, things would be A LOT DIFFERENT, A LOT! He loved you as much as you think He should, you’d be in a much better place in life.  (cough, cough)

I know, such stupid thoughts, right? But we fall for ’em. Eve did; you did; and similar arrows will come bombarding your mind during prayer in the near future.  The truth is, our Lord God cares more about us that we’ll ever know (grasp, comprehend, understand, and fathom). He has proved it in the ultimate demonstration, and He continues to prove it over and over again. Remember the verse:

Romans 5:8   But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We know it; probably memorized it. But we have yet to grasp the love of God demonstrated in and through Christ coming down from heaven and dying for us.  What little of this grand sacrifice that we do understand boggles the brain, yet we should labor at knowing Christ in His suffering, death, and resurrection. Then, perhaps, Romans 5:8 will explode within us and those pathetic arrows that fly over the wall into our minds during prayer will fall to the ground before reaching the walls of the kingdom.

When the next arrow of doubt sails into your prayer closet, pull the sword out and quote Romans 5:8. In the meantime, begin praying Ephesians 3:18-19 for the saints and yourself. Perhaps by the Holy Spirit, you “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Yes, though our prayers are personal to us, they are more personal to Him.