Near and Far

A.B. Simpson, founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, once wrote, "True prayer must at once recognize the nearness and greatness of God."  (The Life of Prayer, pg. 8)  This echoes what Jesus gave us in His blueprint for prayer when He said "Our Father in heaven" should be the way we begin our praying.  Most of us probably wrestle between these two realities.  Either we primarily come to God as holy and awesome, or we primarily come to God as the one who loves us more than we can comprehend.  Failure to

balance these two dimensions in prayer can lead us to either fail to truly connect with God because we view Him as too unapproachable, or we act like self-absorbed teens thinking that God exists to fulfill our every desire.

Going deeper in prayer will involve a balance between approaching God for who He is - both the almighty Creator and Sustainer of all things who dwells in unapproachable light AND the one who loves us more deeply and fully than we could ever understand and invites us to come freely into His presence.