I thought this picture was kind of funny…
It is an advertisement put out by some Christian organization to encourage people to think about their eternal destiny rather than put it off until tomorrow. Yet the designers of the advertisement messed up a bit, and put the texts of Jesus on the wrong side.
If you have a cell phone which shows those bubble texts, you know that your texts are on the right in the green bubbles, and the texts you receive are on the left with the grey bubbles and the name of the person sending the text is at the top of the screen.
But in this picture, the designers of the advertisement reversed the bubbles so that it looks like Jesus is saying He is too busy to talk…
It’s a simple oversight, but still a little funny. Nevertheless, it kind of reminds me of a time I watched a video about how to study the Bible, and the creators of the video were talking about how important it was to use Greek and Hebrew in your study of Scripture. The video showed images of Greek and Hebrew text, and ironically, the Hebrew text was upside down! It obviously showed that despite the teacher’s claim that he used Hebrew in his study of Scripture, he didn’t even know which way was “up” when it came to Hebrew.
Does this mean that everything we do as Christians needs to be perfect? Of course not. Nearly every post I write on this blog has typos. (If you ever see one, please let me know about it in the comments or send me a note with that “Ask a Bible or Theology Question” section on the sidebar.)
But anyway, back to the subject of the image…
Is Jesus too Busy?
Most of us probably feel at times that Jesus seems too busy to talk to us. But the exact opposite is true. Due to the fact of the indwelling Holy Spirit and that God is everywhere all the time, God is able to treat each of us as if we were the only person in the world, the only one He needs to listen to, the only one He needs to care for.
God is never too busy or too distracted to listen to you. He is always with you, and always interested in what you are doing, thinking, and feeling. So talk with Him! When you rise up and when you lie down, when you eat your meals and when you drive to work, when you work out and when you watch a movie, remember that God is present with you, and loves to be part of your every conversation.
Praying to the Unbusy God
I think one of the great disservices of the church is how we teach children to pray with their heads bowed, eyes closed, and hands folded. I know why we do this — to help avoid distractions when praying — but it gives the impression that this is the only way we can pray.
But prayer should be similar to talking to a friend who is standing right next to you. When talking to a friend, do you close your eyes, bow your head, and fold your hands so that you can focus 100% on what you are saying and what they tell you in return? No, probably not. If the conversation is serious, you might turn to face them and drop what you are doing, but for normal, average, everyday stuff, you can have a good conversation with someone while you are doing your work, watching TV, going for a walk, driving your car, or eating a meal.
So also with prayer. If you can imagine God by your side all day every day, then you can also begin to hold conversations with Him in your head as you go about your day, just as you do with any other friend or family member.
This is the way I have been trying to pray for the last 10 years or so, and find it extremely helpful. It has gotten so that I sometimes find that it is hard to differentiate between prayer and my actual thoughts.
Rather than thinking, “I need to remember to stop by the store today after work,” I think, “Lord, help me to remember to stop by the store today after work.”
Rather than thinking, “What am I going to do about this bill I can’t pay?” I think, “Lord, what am I going to do about this bill I can’t pay?”
Rather than thinking, “What is wrong with my daughter’s throat and this pain she is experiencing? Should I take her to the doctor? Should I wait some more? Should I give her ibuprofen?” I think, “Lord, what is wrong with my daughter’s throat and this pain she is experiencing? Should I take her to the doctor? Should I wait some more? Should I give her ibuprofen?”
You see how this works?
I am not saying this is the way you have to pray. It is just something that has worked for me over the years. I think there are thousands of ways of praying, and each person prays a little bit differently. The key is to find a way that is natural, normal, and helps you develop your relationship with God, and talk with Him regarding the things that concern and interest you.
How do you pray? If you feel like sharing, leave a comment below.
I like your perspective on prayer. My problem is that I can get so involved in a conversation with God that I’ll forget to do things…like go to work!
That text message reminds me of something…my pastor (in)famously said, “We believe in speaking in tongues. If you want to speak in tongues, please make an appointment with the elders first.” There were titters of laughter throughout the congregation (mine included); most likely the pentecostals. Imagine that–in my church, God has to fill out paperwork before he can speak to us.
That is funny about your pastor.
I hear you about prayer. I try to include God in what I am already doing, rather than focus on God so much that I ignore what is going on in front of me. But sometimes we can get caught up in prayer, which isn’t necessarily bad!
First of all please explain to me who really is your god? Father god or jesus god or holy ghost god? Or all combined into one?
Yes, all are one; and revealed in three distinct persons. That is the mystery of the Trinity, first revealed in the first book of Moses, Genesis – even in the first chapter.
OK thanks and in that case kindly explain to me jesus was praying to whom – himself? as given below:
John 17:3, RS: “[Jesus prayed to his Father:] This is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God [“who alone art truly God,” NE], and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” (Notice that Jesus referred not to himself but to his Father in heaven as “the only true God.”)
John 20:17, RS: “Jesus said to her [Mary Magdalene], ‘Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (So to the resurrected Jesus, the Father was God, just as the Father was God to Mary Magdalene. Interestingly, not once in Scripture do we find the Father addressing the Son as “my God.”)
What do you want to say KHAN? That Jesus is not god?
Hi Khan
Hope you see this.
Great questions and sound reasoning. I am a former Catholic who left that organization and later became what is commonly called a born-again Christian. I can tell you, that Trinity stuff never made any sense to me either. I asked those same questions and didn’t receive a satisfactory answer from anyone. So let me take it up and see if this makes any sense.
There is one God, we agree. Jesus called himself the Son of God, making himself equal to God. To me this means that he never claimed to be God the primal cause, but God the effect. Cause and effect are always one, never two, and cannot be separated. But cause is always first. I and my Father are one. The Father is greater than I. (Father begets, child is begotten.)
Here’s the fun part that I love. Jesus said to his disciples: I go to my Father and YOUR Father, to my God and YOUR God. Now we are like him! Now we see that we are all one with God! Just like Jesus! He always strove to lift others to where he was.
So where is the Trinity in all of this? Beats me. I can’t explain it. Oneness makes more sense to me. I think Paul sums it up nicely in Ephesians 4:4-6: There is one body and one Spirit, even as you have been marked out by God in the one hope of his purpose for you; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.
Yeah! One notable classic devo author who would agree 100%, but nearly forgotten in our post-modern hurry up and git ‘r done world is, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. Reference his small volume, that i prob. do not need to name, strictly for your own benefit, is Practicing the Presence – of God. He, but a humble cook, kept a constant dialogue going with his LORD, through a ‘game of days – hours – and even minutes.’
Yes! I almost mentioned that book, but didn’t. His book is one that taught me think about prayer and the presence of God the way I do.
Great book! Brother Larry rocks!
Hi Taco,
I am not saying anything but I am trying to understand the Christian religion. I want to understand the trinity concept and also who was jesus?
Can you explain?
Khan,
Questions about the trinity are off topic, so I personally will not devote much time debating the trinity, but if others want to do so, that is fine. You ask good questions, and are very respectful. Thank you.
Nobody can actually fully understand or explain the Trinity of God any more than any human mind can fully understand or grasp everything there is to know about God. I imagine that you would agree that there are truths and mysteries about Allah which cannot be understood or grasped by the human mind. Is that right? Or would you say that Allah has revealed 100% of himself to the world and any human being can fully understand Allah if they study enough. I doubt you would say that, because this would then put limits on Allah.
So also with the Trinitarian God. The Bible teaches there is one God (not three) who exists in three persons. Can this be fully explained or understood by the human mind? No. Does it seem like a contradiction? Maybe, but that is not God’s problem; it is ours. How would you describe color to a blind man? Hearing to someone who is deaf? You can try, but they will never really understand. So also, how do you describe the infinite to the finite?
There are numerous biblical and logical reasons to believe in the Trinity, but I will not try to get into them here in the comments. In fact, this will be my only reply on this topic here…
I had a long response for your query, but I chose to answer Khan instead.
In short, though, I pray like you do, plus a little extra something that has helped me.
Dave,
Thank you for your detailed response and I have been illuminated – sort of.
However, if you understand christianity than you should not call yourself a christian anymore – not even born again.
What it means is at the end of the day that before creation there was only God and nothing else not even jesus. If jesus was a word wo all were we – no difference.
You can go through all the literature including bibles and you will find that God has not created anything which according to you means “GOD THE EFFECT”
Thanks for such a quick response, Khan.
Sorry I didn’t give you any illumination. My shortcoming. And who said they understood? If I understood, I’d be in big demand.
I love what you say about there being God and nothing else. I wouldn’t argue with that.
And I see you’ve moved from the Trinity and take odds with my use of the word effect. Semantics. Replace effect with whatever you like. It is all the effect or outcome God. If not, I’m hard pressed to explain who or what caused it all. Including Jesus
If you are trying to disprove the divinity of Jesus, I can’t help you. I’ll just end up trying to show you yours. That’s one of the things about Jesus’ life and teachings. It brings to an end the manlike God and brings to light the Godlike man.
Thanks for challenging me on that point!
I was looking for this article. I only typed “pray” into the search, and this was literally the last result of about 500. Whew. I really liked what you had to say about how to pray, but I needed a refresher. Thanks.
Glad you found it! That’s a lot of pages to sift through… I have some other posts on this blog about prayer as well which you might find helpful. Just use the search bar at the top.
I couldn’t resist commenting. Exceptionally well written!