God is Greater

Tuesday 7/9/2013 6:26 AM

My devotional theme for the week is consciousness.  The readings for the week focus on the mind and its ability to come to God.  Abraham Heschel writes about prayer and its prerequisites in his book Man’s Quest for God.  “(Prayer) depends upon the total spiritual situation of man and upon a mind within which God is at home.  Of course, if our lives are too barren to bring forth the spirit of worship; if all our thoughts and anxieties do not contain enough spiritual substance to be distilled into prayer, an inner transformation is a matter of emergency. … One cannot pray unless he has faith in his own ability to accost the infinite, merciful, eternal God.”  I’m afraid that deep within my heart I often doubt my faith in my own ability to accost God.  My mind is too often distracted with thoughts and anxieties so that there is little or no room for God.

When faced with the reality that, on my own, I seem to be unable to begin or maintain a conversation with God it is easy to become discouraged.  This morning my assigned reading brought me hope.  1 John 3:19-20 reads, “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”  Thankfully God is not bound by my finite ability to maintain relationship.  His abilities far surpass mine and, in his grace, he has made it possible in spite of my feeble inadequacies.  What is impossible for me is possible for God.  Thank God for his grace.