Now, Selwyn starts to bring together what he has been writing about over the last two months.
I think the key statement, in today’s study, is: ‘… when the Lord talks about Himself in Scripture it is often in terms of His attributes or character traits – kindness, justice, righteousness and so on. And there is a clear and definite purpose in this: the more we know of God, the more established our lives will be here on earth. There is nothing more important, in my view, than gaining knowledge of God through contemplation of Him. …’
In addition to contemplation, I believe prayer is the most important aspect of establishing (from our perspective) and building our relationship with God. Think about it, communication is an important element of any human relationship – we tell those closest to us – those we trust the most – details about our lives which we would not tell anyone else. Likewise, talking to our God – who knows us better than anyone else – and who loves us more than anyone else – must be a central plank of our relationship with Him.
The best part about prayer is that Jesus responds perfectly to our prayers and if we carefully listen for His answers and learn from what He says then our love and trust in Him will grow – do you agree? It sometimes appears to me to when some people pray; it’s like they are writing their prayer requests on a piece of paper and letting the wind blow it away. A sort of prayer lucky-dip in that the wind may take their prayer close to God and He may bend down to read it – if they are fortunate. These people really don’t expect an answer from God, and they also don’t usually take the time to listen to His response: such people rarely demonstrate the joy of knowing Jesus, rather they become over-anxious about the turmoil that abounds in our time.
As well as the main verse set for reading and meditation, these verses are also good: (Exodus 34:6-7) ‘And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebelion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished … “‘
Our only hope
Now, Selwyn starts to bring together what he has been writing about over the last two months.
I think the key statement, in today’s study, is: ‘… when the Lord talks about Himself in Scripture it is often in terms of His attributes or character traits – kindness, justice, righteousness and so on. And there is a clear and definite purpose in this: the more we know of God, the more established our lives will be here on earth. There is nothing more important, in my view, than gaining knowledge of God through contemplation of Him. …’
In addition to contemplation, I believe prayer is the most important aspect of establishing (from our perspective) and building our relationship with God. Think about it, communication is an important element of any human relationship – we tell those closest to us – those we trust the most – details about our lives which we would not tell anyone else. Likewise, talking to our God – who knows us better than anyone else – and who loves us more than anyone else – must be a central plank of our relationship with Him.
The best part about prayer is that Jesus responds perfectly to our prayers and if we carefully listen for His answers and learn from what He says then our love and trust in Him will grow – do you agree? It sometimes appears to me to when some people pray; it’s like they are writing their prayer requests on a piece of paper and letting the wind blow it away. A sort of prayer lucky-dip in that the wind may take their prayer close to God and He may bend down to read it – if they are fortunate. These people really don’t expect an answer from God, and they also don’t usually take the time to listen to His response: such people rarely demonstrate the joy of knowing Jesus, rather they become over-anxious about the turmoil that abounds in our time.
As well as the main verse set for reading and meditation, these verses are also good: (Exodus 34:6-7) ‘And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebelion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished … “‘
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