Daily Worship

Talking to the King

Campbell Dye May 08, 2018 0 0
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Image credit: Campbell Dye

1 Timothy 6: 13-16

13 In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.

One of the beauties of the Christian life is our access to God, through Jesus. In prayer, we can say what we want, when we want, how we want. We can say a couple of words or speak for hours.  We can use words of one syllable or all the poetry that God’s gift of language endows on us.   When we pray we can be thankful, frustrated, angry, elated, joyous, grieving, or any combination of the many human emotions we cycle through.

Our relationship with God is one of trust and intimacy - a perfected parent/child interaction.

But that very intimacy and candour can obscure who it is we are talking to and who it is standing behind us every step of the way. Here, writing to Timothy, Paul summarises the awesomeness of Jesus describing him as “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light…..”

We mustn’t put God in a box or let our minds limit God to our own imaginations. Nowhere more so than in our prayers for peace. The impossibility of human beings coexisting for any length of time without war seems utterly fixed. Nothing we can do as individuals seems to alter that reality.   

Well, as Paul notes, we have a saviour who rules over all. God is all-powerful beyond our imagination. Jesus brought the key to peace between humankind and God but our prayers matter.    God can and will bring peace. We must play our part in that.

 

Almighty God, I love that I can speak to you all the worries of my heart. Thank you that you want to be close to me and know my every thought. Help me to see you for who you are - the hand behind creation, all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving. And so, sovereign God, I pray to you with all my heart and soul, that you would create peace on this earth. I pray for an end to war and conflict and a time of respect and consideration for all. You are the author of peace and lover of concord. I pray for your love to be seen all over the world. Amen.