Is it really necessary, to spend ones life serving a God you cannot see?
Was not God's message precisely to take care of and serve, the very creation he designed and in so doing, serve the creator.
I find it progressively difficult to busy myself serving and praising someone, I can neither see nor hear. Furthermore, I feel almost as though I'm simply talking with myself, whenever I pray or speak. Or if I talk of answered prayers: many of those answers I would have received, even if I hadn't prayed.
As a matter of fact, how can I ever be sure that God has answered anything I've prayed? And why is that important?
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3 comments:
just a view thoughts on it:
what's serving for you? (praying ceaseless, asking for gods will and waiting for him to answer, living as the bible tells you,...?!)
and what do you mean by a god you cannot see? (he doesnt show up? he is unclear in his speaking? he cannot be experienced as you and i would like it)
i totally agree on your point that taking care of and serve the creation is nothing else but serving god. but i think this is just a part of it. (even though a big part)
taking care of creation is serving god. but serving god doesn't end in serving the creation.
and yes, it' s difficult for me, too, to serve and praise god, (whatever i mean with this phrase), just because he sometimes doesn't seem to show up.
it feels like i am talking with myself. but when you're asking why to serve a god you cannot see, why even believe in him?
how do you know that your prayers are unnecessary or that things christians consider "answered prayers" would have happened anyway?
and maybe a prayer sometimes does not change what is going to happen but prepares you to accept the outcome?
maybe prayer opens your eyes to become sensitive for what god is up to in this situation?
and maybe often the outcome is secondary and prayer is not about the thing you pray for but about you and god getting closer.
or am i completely missing the point?
Sorry that it’s taken so long to answer you.
What do I think “serving” is you ask?
For me serving is anything I do in the name of, or for the sake of someone else, without expecting anything in return.
What do I mean with “a god you cannot see”? Pretty much just that; I have never seen or hear God. Never really spoken with him. Often I have convinced myself that I was talking to God, only to get to know myself better and realizing that, it was just me talking to myself and speaking my own will into situations all along.
By the way, you’re right about serving the creation not being the end of serving God, provided one believes there is definitely a God, separate from the creation to serve. I am at a point, where I believe, it is impossible to separate God from his creation.
Concerning your point regarding prayer, and how things prayed for may have happened even without prayer: I totally agree with you. How can we know that it was “God” who changed the situation? Maybe, it was just our God-like nature, which, as a result of our concern, expressed in prayer, changed our present situation and was then later applied to God instead of just telling it like it is, namely: you changed something by your own actions.
Your thought about prayer preparing us for an eventual outcome: I like this. It does however go right along with my thought of not wanting to, necessarily; ascribe answered or unanswered prayer to God.
Maybe, like you said, prayer opens your eyes to become sensitive to what God is doing in a given situation. But again, it’s just a maybe. We don’t really know. Maybe prayer is just a form of helping your psyche to deal with a stressful situation. There are other ways of experiencing similar elation or freedom from strife, but focusing ones thoughts.
As far as prayer being about you and God getting closer: I could possibly be in agreement with you here. But only to the extent that prayer forces you to deal with yourself in such an intimate way, to reflect upon your own desires, dream, wants and needs, that you begin to see the bigger picture of who God is in you.
I don’t think you’re missing the point at all. I would just define God differently I think. I no longer see God as someone I have to get to or call on in order to be heard. Rather, I see him taking care of and lending his ear to those who call on him and to those who don’t. Also, his hand of wrath seems to meet even the most kindred spirits, which is evidence enough for me that prayer is neither about getting an answer nor about getting to know God better. After all, who really knows God better after he completely confounds you?
Dearest Jonathan...
"After all, who really knows God better after he completely confounds you?"
If I could understand God's ways and His character utterly,
He wouldn't be God.
And I have been confounded and bruised and hurt and lost and lonely more this last year than ever before;
and I rage at God.
I plead with Him.
And I trust Him.
Because no matter how utterly shitty life can get, I *must* trust that His plan for me will result in something beautiful...maybe not in my lifetime, maybe I will never see it, maybe it won't be the beauty I expect, but I must trust in Him, regardless.
(Does it suck?
Hell, yes.
But I still hope.)
Because, if I can no longer cling to the promise of understanding in a flawless eternity with Christ, then I might as well go off myself.
...
(I have no idea if that was helpful to you, but I've been struggling with my faith this year...and want you to know that you're not alone in trying to understand it all.)
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