If you’ve ever been to church or have maintained a relationship with a religious person long enough. Most likely at some point you’ve heard the words: “You need to pray more, or you need to have more faith.” What a statement huh? Are you telling me that God doesn’t answer my prayer because my faith is not enough? If so, how do you know how big is my faith? Last time I checked you were bone and flesh just like me… and as far as I know, a “Faithometer” was never packed in the bag God gave us for our stay on this side of eternity. So how do you know it is a matter of faith? What if God just doesn’t want to answer my prayer? What if I’ve called on heaven as loud as I can, yet I hear no response? Could it be that some prayers just don’t get answers? Dealing with an unknown or difficult situation is hard enough. I don’t want to hear people telling me that on top of what I have to deal with, I also have a problem in my relationship with God and that it is my fault the fact that he doesn’t answer my prayers. Common bro… give me a break!!
I know I know, it seems like I am a little mad… the truth is, I AM!! As I write this post, I can vividly remember all those times in my room when I was feeling lonely and depressed, and instead of calling on God, I’d hide because I felt like God was pissed at me, and that was the reason why I was going through a difficult situation. In my mind, I’d say “It’s not even worth the try to pray anymore… I guess my faith is just not enough” See, these kinds of situations happen when religion takes a toll on us! When they make us believe that a relationship with God is like any other human relationship. “I give as much as you give” “if you give me 20, I’ll give you 20. If you give me 70, I’ll give you 70” type of relationship. Like me, you my friend, might be feeling that you are not enough and that’s the reason why God doesn’t take you out of this hardship. Like I said… I’ve been there many times. I feel you, and beforehand I want to say that you have the absolute right to be feeling this way. However, if you allow me, I want to introduce to you what has helped me navigate the difficult situation I am finding myself in right now. Now, before you keep reading, I must warn you! This is not another empowerment message or a promise that if you apply my strategy your situation will be solved. Truth is, I don’t know if you will see an answer to your prayer on this side of existence! With that being said… let’s dive in.
If for some reason you opened the “bible app” this morning, you saw that the verse of the day was Matthew 6:9-13. If you didn’t, well, now you know. What is the verse about? In simple words, the disciples had asked Jesus how to pray, so he went on and showed them what is today known as “The Lord’s Prayer”. Like two strangers who met at a coffee shop by coincidence and went on to have 3 kids, a dog, and a white picket fence, this verse popped on my screen this morning… perfect timing. It gave me the basis for what I’ve been wanting to write about for a long time, but I just couldn’t find the words. The prayer starts like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” That’s it!! That’s all we need!! Listen closely my friend. Jesus didn’t say, divinity who is in heaven, or powerful force in heaven, or almighty who is in heaven… no, he said, OUR FATHER who is in heaven. This person who is in fact, almighty, powerful, and divine, wants us to call him father!! I don’t know if this makes sense but hear me out!! the creator of the world wants to be our father!! You may say… yeah, and what does that mean? Well, it means that you are not alone and that you have a father, but not a regular one like the one you’ve got here on earth. No, you’ve got an almighty Father in heaven… it blows my mind!! I don’t know how your relationship with your earthly father is, was, or if you ever had one. Humans will always fail us, and I know it sounds cliché but I have to say it… God won’t! the problem here is that people, religions, and churches, have made this whole thing about us humans, and how we get to benefit if we have a “relationship” with God. 33.000 thousand religions in the world and each one of them thinks that they are the ones going to heaven. All based on human practices! Some say you need to dress a certain way, others say, you can’t eat certain things, others make sacrifices, and so on… “If I do this then God will want me” They promise you that this is a give-and-take kind of relationship, and if you are “good enough” then God will reward you. If that was true bad things wouldn’t happen to good people… but they do!!! So, does that make God a liar? No!! it just proves our ignorance and that we don’t know God. Listen my friend, no human practice can make God want us or love us more than he already does. No, you don’t need more faith. Remember I told you at the beginning of this writing that I’m finding myself in a tough situation right now? well for the first time in my life instead of thinking about how big of a problem I’m in and feeling unworthy because God doesn’t answer my prayer, I try to remind myself that I have an almighty Father in heaven, who sees things that I can’t, and it’s guiding my steps to a purpose. Now, you see how I said I try instead of saying I do? I am human and many times I fail at remembering who my father is, sometimes I find myself trying to figure it out, stressing, and even not sleeping because of the storm I’m navigating, but you know what? That’s ok! Even when I forget who he is, he doesn’t. He doesn’t need my efforts to be who he is! He loves me messed up, and doubtful. He is a good Father.
My friend, you need to take the weight off your shoulders. You don’t need more faith or pray more. You have an almighty father in heaven who sees you and loves you. Now, I’m not saying that if you wrap your mind around this, God will remove the storm. What I’m saying is that in the storm you have a Father whom you can run to, and this Father is not earthly… he is almighty and has chosen to be with you every day, every hour, every minute, and every second, during your visit to the world.
Whatever it is that you are going through, from the bottom of my heart I pray that God gives you the strength and wisdom to navigate the storm while the time comes to sail in calm waters. Please remember that you are not alone, shoot me an email if you want to talk! I’d be happy to connect with you. As always, thanks for allowing me to be part of your journey. Remember there is a man changing lives left and right… his name is Jesus. Call upon him! He is closer than you think.