About Prayer & Receiving God's Grace

I'm amazed at how many times I can read over a passage and still find new things revealed through it.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians 4:6)

I think many of us have (at least at one point) believed supplication to be a "necessary evil" in prayer.  Allow me to try and explain.

It's been said that you become like the five people you spend the most time with.  I think the types of churches we find ourselves in have a lot to do with that as well.  

Many churches I know of like to talk a lot about how God's grace is greater than we can fathom.  They also discuss how we as corrupted outcasts are beyond unworthy and how we could never come close to God.

Both of these points have sufficient biblical support.  We certainly do not deserve God's grace in any measure, and why He decided to give it to us is difficult to understand.  But what has been bothering me is this -

Many of us born-again Christians who have heard this teaching (and perhaps have believed it at one time or another) do not live as though we are redeemed.

Instead, we continue to hold onto our shame as though we've never known salvation - as if we're still outside the gates of God's kingdom without our ransom being paid.

Instead, many Christians have turned to legalism, thinking that even though they can't receive God's grace that maybe they can somehow better their chances by keeping laws.  At this point we face a crossroad - are we seeking to follow Christ, or striving to lead "pretty people" lives?

Are we letting our rules and regulations get in the way of God's grace?  If we don't think we can receive it, then we certainly won't be giving it to others.  Enter intellectualism, a great yet potentially devastating tool. It turns out the price we too often pay for "correct theology" is hypocrisy.

We preach God's grace but don't accept it, thinking we could never come before Him with the honest cries of our souls.  But it is written "let your requests be made known to God."  "See, I have inscribed you on the palm of My hand," God tells us in Isaiah.  Paul says we can come BOLDLY to the throne of grace because of Jesus, because of the temptations and ultimately death He faced for us.  We were designed for communion not just with each other, but with God Himself.  

He doesn't want us to shy away from Him, He grieves with us and gives us the attention of a Father (2 Cor. 1:3-4, Psalm 147:3, 1 Peter 5:7), He has planned our lives from the beginning of time, taking special care of the details (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-16, Isaiah 49:1).  

Who we are, what we face and what we need are known by God, and yet He delights in our coming to Him and asking Him anyway.

"...In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace," Paul says.  This is something I am re-learning daily.  

The devil would drive us away from God, saying that we cannot approach Him as we are.  He wants to separate God from His people.  He wants us to believe that we can't belong to Him.  But God tells us plainly this is not true.  "The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God," Lewis said.  This is our true identity.  

The God Who counted and named the stars hasn't forgotten your name.  You're no longer out of place in His Kingdom.